How to Spell the Months in Spanish | No-Mistake Month List

Spelling months in Spanish feels easy until you’re writing dates for class, filling out a form, or naming files for a project. One dropped letter can make you pause, backspace, then second-guess the rest of the sentence. Let’s fix that.

You’ll get the exact spellings, a few spelling anchors that stick, and ready-to-copy date patterns. You’ll also see the small rules that cause most mistakes: lowercase month names, when to use de, and what to do with septiembre and setiembre.

How to Spell the Months in Spanish

Spanish uses the same twelve months as English, but the spelling is different and the capitalization rule flips. Month names are common nouns in Spanish, so they’re written in lowercase in normal sentences. The Real Academia Española explains that months, weekdays, and seasons take lowercase unless a standard capitalization rule forces an uppercase letter, such as the start of a sentence. You can read that rule on the RAE site: Mayúscula o minúscula en los meses.

Full Month List In Order

• enero (January)
• febrero (February)
• marzo (March)
• abril (April)
• mayo (May)
• junio (June)
• julio (July)
• agosto (August)
• septiembre (September)
• octubre (October)
• noviembre (November)
• diciembre (December)

Spelling Notes You Can Use Right Away

None of the month names take accent marks. That’s a relief, since accents often slow down beginners. Your bigger trap is missing a silent letter that English has, or adding one that Spanish doesn’t.

Two pairs deserve extra attention: junio and julio start with ju-, not hu- or gu-, and septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre all end with -bre. If you lock in that -bre ending once, four months get easier.

Month Spelling Rules That Trip People Up

If you’ve learned Spanish in English class, capitalization is the first shock. English treats months as proper names, so you write “March” and “September.” Spanish doesn’t. In normal writing you’ll see “marzo” and “septiembre” in lowercase.

Uppercase month names still show up in real life. That’s often a design choice on posters, menus, and calendars. In schoolwork and formal writing, use lowercase unless the month begins the sentence.

Lowercase In Dates

Dates are where the lowercase rule matters most. Spanish typically writes day, month, then year. The month stays lowercase in a formal letter too.

These date shapes show up in homework, emails, and applications:

• 14 de octubre de 1951
• el 3 de mayo
• martes, 7 de enero

Septiembre And Setiembre

You may see two spellings for September: septiembre and setiembre. Both are accepted in Spanish usage, and you’ll spot each one in published writing. Pick the one your class expects and use it the same way across the page, since mixing forms can look like a typo.

If you’re building spelling memory, septiembre has a nice trick: it matches the sound chunk sep- you hear at the start. That little p is the letter most learners forget.

When To Use De With A Month

In Spanish, de connects the parts of a date and also links a month to the word mes. You’ll see both patterns often, so they’re a neat way to reinforce spelling.

• el 20 de abril
• el mes de agosto
• a finales de noviembre

Notice what doesn’t happen: you don’t capitalize the month, and you don’t add an article like “the” before a month name on its own. You’d write en marzo, not en el marzo.

The First Day Of The Month

One detail surprises learners: Spanish often treats the first day as a word, not a plain “1.” In dates you may see 1.º de enero or primero de enero. In everyday notes, many people still write 1 de enero. If you’re writing for class, follow the style your course uses.

Abbreviations You’ll Meet In Notes

Abbreviations are common on planners and worksheets. Periods are normal in Spanish abbreviations, so you’ll often see a dot at the end.

ene., feb., mar., abr., may., jun., jul., ago., sept., oct., nov., dic.

Some teachers prefer full month names in essays and tests. Save abbreviations for charts, tables, and tight spaces.

Before you use the table, scan the months once and say them out loud. Hearing the word while you see the letters reduces spelling slips. If you mix up letters, slow down and trace the chunk that matters: ju- for junio/julio and -bre for the four months that share that ending. It takes a minute, and it pays off when you write dates.

Spanish Month	Sound Cue	Spell It Like This
enero	eh-NEH-ro	One “n,” ends in “-ero”
febrero	feh-BREH-ro	Two “r” letters: febrero
marzo	MAR-so	Ends with “-zo,” not “-so”
abril	a-BREEL	Ends in “-il,” no extra “e”
mayo	MAH-yo	“y” sound, not “ll” spelling
junio	HOO-nee-o	Starts with “ju-,” not “hu-”
julio	HOO-lee-o	Same “ju-” start as junio
agosto	a-GOS-to	Keep the “g” in the middle
septiembre	sep-TYEM-bre	Has a “p,” ends in “-bre”
octubre	ok-TOO-bre	Starts “oc-,” ends in “-bre”
noviembre	no-VYEM-bre	Has “-vie-,” ends in “-bre”
diciembre	dee-SYEM-bre	Starts “di-,” ends in “-bre”

Spelling The Months In Spanish For Dates, Forms, And Classwork

Knowing the list is step one. Step two is using the month names the way Spanish writing expects. When you match the usual date pattern, your spelling gets checked again and again as you write, which makes it sink in.

Spanish date order is day, month, year. Fundéu summarizes the standard pattern and punctuation in a clear way: Cómo se escriben las fechas. It’s a solid reference if you want to match academic style.

Prepositions That Pair With Months

Months often come right after a preposition. If you learn these chunks as a unit, spelling gets easier because you’re not inventing the sentence on the fly.

• en enero (in January)
• desde marzo (since March)
• hasta julio (until July)
• a principios de octubre (at the start of October)
• a mediados de noviembre (mid-November)
• a finales de diciembre (at the end of December)

Month Names Inside Real Sentences

Try writing a few lines you might use in school or work. Don’t rush. Spell each month name the same way you see it in the list.

• Mi cumpleaños es en mayo.
• La reunión es el 12 de febrero.
• El semestre empieza en agosto y termina en diciembre.

If you want audio help while you practice, SpanishDict has a month list with pronunciation: Months In Spanish. Hearing the word can reveal where your spelling drifted.

Ranges And Repeating Events

Ranges show up in schedules and syllabi. They also push you to spell two or three months back-to-back, which is great practice.

• de enero a marzo
• entre abril y junio
• julio-agosto (a dash range on calendars)

For repeating events, Spanish often uses cada plus a month: cada septiembre (each September). That’s another clean pattern to copy.

Pronunciation Clues That Keep Spellings Straight

You don’t need perfect pronunciation to spell well, but a few sound cues help you hear missing letters. Spanish spelling lines up with sound more often than English, so listening can act as a built-in spell check.

The Four -Bre Months

septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre-bre once on your paper, then attach each start: sep-, oc-, no-, di-.

If you’re tempted to write november-style English spelling, slow down on noviembre. The middle is -vie-, which you can hear when you say it.

Ju- At The Start Of Junio And Julio

English learners sometimes want to start June and July with “h” because the sound is airy. Spanish uses j. So both months start with ju-: junio, julio. Write them side by side a few times, and your hand will remember the pattern.

The C Sound In Diciembre

diciembre has ci near the start. In much of Latin America it sounds like an “s,” and in Spain it can sound closer to “th.” Either way, the spelling stays di-ci-em-bre. If you hear “see,” it’s still ci on paper.

What You’re Writing	Spanish Pattern	Spacing Tip
Date In A Sentence	el 5 de mayo	Lowercase month; spaces around de
Full Date With Year	14 de octubre de 1951	No commas needed in the date itself
Month As A Topic	en agosto	No article before the month name
Month With Mes	el mes de enero	de links mes + month
Time Range	de marzo a junio	Repeat lowercase months on both ends
Start Of Month	a principios de abril	Keep the phrase together as one chunk
Mid Month	a mediados de noviembre	Spell -vie- in noviembre
End Of Month	a finales de diciembre	Lock in the shared -bre ending

Common Misspellings And How To Catch Them

Most month-name mistakes come from English habits or rushed writing. The fix is often a tiny letter check. Here are the slips learners make often, plus what to watch.

• febrero: don’t drop the second r. Write fe-bre-ro in three beats.
• marzo: ends with -zo. English “March” can trick you into marso.
• abril: ends with -il, not -ile.
• agosto: keep the g. Some learners write aosto.
• septiembre: has a p after se. If you learned setiembre, stick with it and don’t mix forms in one page.
• octubre: begins with oc-, not ot-.
• noviembre: has -vie- in the middle.
• diciembre: starts with di-, then the shared -bre ending.

A simple self-check: scan for the four -bre months. If one of them ends in something else, fix it. Then scan for febrero and confirm you still see both r letters.

Practice Drills You Can Do In Ten Minutes

You don’t need long sessions to get solid spelling. Short practice, repeated often, beats a single long cram. Here are drills that fit in a small break.

1. Write the list from memory. Start at enero. When you get stuck, peek, then restart the line.
2. Shuffle and sort. Write the twelve months on scraps of paper, mix them, then put them back in order.
3. Date swap. Take five English dates and rewrite them in Spanish order, keeping month names lowercase.
4. Two-month sentences. Write one sentence that uses en and another that uses de with a month name.
5. Read aloud, then write. Say “septiembre” once, then write it. Do the same for the other -bre months.

Copy-Ready Month List For Your Notes

If you want a single line you can paste into notes, use this. It’s also a handy line to copy by hand once a day for a week.

enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre

Now try three lines that force you to spell the months inside real writing:

• Mi examen es el 9 de marzo.
• La entrega es a finales de junio.
• El curso va de septiembre a diciembre.

One last trick: write each month next to a number 1-12. The pairing trains your eye, so 11 pulls noviembre and 12 pulls diciembre right away when you’re tired.

Once those feel smooth, you’re set. You’ll write month names without pausing, and your Spanish dates will look clean on any page.