The 12 Months in Spanish (And Why You Keep Capitalizing Them Wrong)

Look, if you're learning Spanish, you've probably noticed that the months in Spanish look pretty similar to English. Enero, febrero, marzo... close enough to January, February, March that you can basically guess them, right?

Here's the thing though: most Spanish learners mess up the months in really specific ways. They capitalize them when they shouldn't. They write dates in the American format and confuse everyone. They pronounce diciembre like they're clearing their throat.

Let me save you from making the same mistakes I see all the time.

The 12 Months of the Year in Spanish

First, here's your quick reference. The 12 months in Spanish, in order:

Notice something? They're not capitalized. That's your first grammar rule right there.

The Capitalization Thing Everyone Gets Wrong

Unlike in English, months are not capitalized in Spanish. This trips up literally every English speaker learning Spanish.

In English, we write "I was born in March." In Spanish, it's "Nací en marzo." Lowercase. Always lowercase... unless it's the first word in a sentence.

So "Marzo es mi mes favorito" is correct (it starts the sentence), but "Mi cumpleaños es en Marzo" is wrong. It should be "Mi cumpleaños es en marzo."

This isn't some weird exception. Spanish just doesn't capitalize month names, days of the week, or even languages. It's one of those grammar rules that feels arbitrary until you just accept it and move on.

How to Pronounce the Months in Spanish

The pronunciation isn't too bad if you already know some Spanish. But there are a few things that'll make you sound way less like a gringo:

The "J" Sound
Junio and julio both have that Spanish "j" that sounds like you're softly clearing your throat. Not a hard English "j" like in "jump." More like the "h" in "hello" but raspier.

The "C" Thing
Here's where it gets regional. In most of Latin America, the "c" in marzo and diciembre sounds like an English "s." So you'd say "MAR-so" and "dee-SYEM-breh."

But in Spain? That "c" before "e" or "i" sounds like "th" in "think." So it's "MAR-tho" and "dee-THYEM-breh." Neither is wrong—just different dialects.

Stress Patterns
Most Spanish months stress the second syllable: e-NE-ro, fe-BRE-ro, a-BRIL. The big exception is mayo—it's MA-yo, not ma-YO. Get that wrong and it sounds weird.

Writing Dates in Spanish (The Format That Confuses Americans)

When you write dates in Spanish, the day always comes first. Always.

In the U.S., we write September 7, 2024 or 09/07/2024. In Spanish-speaking countries, that same date is 7 de septiembre de 2024 or 07/09/2024.

This is important if you're filling out forms, booking travel, or scheduling anything in a Spanish-speaking country. Writing 09/07 when you mean July 9th could get you a plane ticket for September 7th instead.

Also, you don't need to use an article before the month most of the time. Just "Mi cumpleaños es en agosto" (My birthday is in August). But if you're giving a specific date, you use "el" before the day number: "el 15 de agosto" (the 15th of August).

One More Grammar Thing: Months Are Masculine

All of the months in Spanish are masculine nouns. If you're describing them with adjectives, you use the masculine form: "un julio caluroso" (a hot July), "el próximo enero" (next January).

You don't really need to use the article "el" with months unless you're being descriptive. "Voy a México en enero" (I'm going to Mexico in January) works fine without it.

The Roman Calendar Connection

The names of the months come from the Roman calendar, which is why they look similar to English—both languages borrowed from Latin.

The last four months have a weird quirk: septiembre comes from "septem" (seven), octubre from "octo" (eight), noviembre from "novem" (nine), and diciembre from "decem" (ten). So September through December were originally months 7-10 in the Roman calendar.

Why? Because the Roman calendar used to start in March. When they added January and February to the beginning, they didn't bother renaming the other months. So now we're stuck with names that don't match their actual positions in the year.

It's stupid, but at least it gives you an easy memory trick for remembering the spelling of the last four months.

How to Actually Learn the Months (Not Just Memorize Them)

Here's the honest truth: drilling month names with flashcards is boring as hell and you'll forget them in a week.

The better way? See them used naturally. If you're serious about learning Spanish, start reading Spanish content or watching Spanish shows. When you see a date in subtitles or read it in an article, you'll pick up how months work way faster than staring at a vocabulary list.

This is basically how we approach Spanish learning at Migaku—instead of grinding through decontextualized vocabulary, you learn Spanish through actual content that native speakers watch and read. When you're watching a Spanish show and someone mentions "en diciembre," you see it in context. You hear the pronunciation. You understand what it means because of what's happening on screen.

And if you don't know a word or phrase? Our browser extension lets you click it and instantly add it to your flashcard deck, complete with the sentence it came from and audio from the actual show. That's how you learn months and dates—not by memorizing a list, but by seeing them used naturally over and over until they stick.

If you want to get started in Spanish the right way—through comprehensible input instead of textbooks—check out our guide to the best Spanish shows you can learn from.

Anyway, if you're ready to actually use these month names in context instead of just memorizing them, Migaku's browser extension works with Spanish content from Netflix, YouTube, or whatever you're watching. Click any word you don't know, add it to your spaced repetition deck, and you'll see it again at the perfect intervals to actually remember it. There's a 10-day free trial if you want to check it out.