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Colloquially, we use the verb estar to say what the date or season is. It is generally used in the present tense and always with the nosotros conjugation: "estamos".
Dates and days of the week in Spanish: colloquial
Hoy estamos a cuatro de enero.Today is the 4th of January.
Estamos a ocho de marzo de 2018.[Today] it's 8th March 2018.
Estamos a jueves.It is Thursday [today].
Estamos a viernes.It is Friday [today].
Notice how in all the examples above the preposition "a" follows estamos.
Note that when saying what today's date or day of the week is, we don't need to add the word "hoy" as it is implicit in the use of estamos, i.e., it can only refer to "today".
You can also use estar to ask what today's date is:
¿A qué día estamos?What day is it today?
Estamos a martes, dos de mayo de 2019.It is Tuesday, May 2nd, 2019.
Seasons in Spanish: colloquial
Ahora estamos en verano.It is summer now.
¿Por qué llevas una camiseta de manga corta? ¡Estamos en invierno!Why are you wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt? It is winter!
¡Qué bien! ya estamos en primavera.Great! It is already spring.
Carlitos, hay muchas hojas en el suelo porque estamos en otoño.Carlitos, there are lots of leaves on the ground because it is autumn.
Notice how when talking about seasons we use the preposition "en" after estamos.
Use:
estamos a + date, day of the week
estamos en + season
The use of estar, instead of ser, to talk about dates and seasons is more colloquial. See also Ser vs Estar in Spanish: Using ser in Spanish (not estar) to talk about time, days, dates and seasons for a more basic, general and formal use.
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