By Maya Chen, lettering designer and type educator ยท Checked by Jordan Hale ยท ยท How we review content
Key facts
- The capitals that need the most care in month and day names are M, J, S, T, W and F.
- In English, month and day names are proper nouns and take a capital letter, but seasons such as spring and winter do not.
- February is usually the hardest month to write in cursive, because of the F capital, the br pair and the u and a in a row.
- The tricky join in Wednesday is dn: close the d and return its stem to the baseline before starting the n hump.
- May is never abbreviated, while the other months have short forms such as Jan, Feb and Sep or Sept.
- Numeric dates such as 03/10/2026 mean different things in different countries, so write the month as a word on anything you send abroad.
Why practise months and days in cursive?
Weekdays and months are short, familiar and always capitalised, which makes them ideal practice for capitals and for joins you will use in every date you write. The template above renders all twelve months and seven days in school cursive, each with chips to copy a Unicode cursive version if you want one for a message. The images are your handwriting model; the copied text is a different thing, and it will not teach you the joins.
The capitals: M, J, S, T, W, F
Twelve month names and seven day names start with only a handful of capitals, so a few minutes on them pays off every time you write a date.
| Capital | Words | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| M | March, May, Monday | Two or three humps of equal height, the same width |
| J | January, June, July | Descends below the baseline, often followed by a lift |
| S | September, Saturday, Sunday | Donโt print a small S. Start at the top with the entry curve |
| T | Tuesday, Thursday | The bar is a separate stroke after the stem |
| W | Wednesday | Ends high, so plan the bridge to e |
| F | February, Friday | The crossbar is a separate stroke; the stem curls |
See the cursive capital letters page for which capitals connect to the lowercase letters that follow.
Which joins are tricky inside month and day names?
Wednesday: the dn join
The d is a downcurve letter, the n an overcurve letter. After the stem of d returns to the baseline, begin the n hump immediately. The d is silent in speech, so rushed writers often drop it and write Wensday.
February: the br join
The b ends at the top with a bridge, so the r must begin at the top of the bridge and come down to a shelf. Also watch ua: the u ends at the baseline and the a has to start its circle at the midline, with no stretch between them.
September: the pt join
The p has a tail that drops down and comes back, and t is shorter than loop letters. Cross the t after finishing the word.
Thursday and Saturday
hu, ur and rd are all baseline joins and easy; the risk is the s, which should end with a rounded peak and not look like an r.
August and November
gu pairs a tail with an upstroke; mb in November joins a hump to a looped letter that ends high.
March, April and May
The shortest names; the ay in May drops a tail and needs space below the line.
How do I write dates in cursive?
Dates are written in a few common patterns, and each pattern uses cursive differently.
- Written out in full: Thursday, 3 October 2026 (or October 3, 2026 in US style). Use a comma after the weekday, and between day and year in the US style.
- Month and day on a card: October 3rd. Add rd a bit smaller and slightly raised, but keep the loop of the d clear.
- Journals: write the weekday as a heading and the date underneath. Slowing down on the heading gives the page a neat start.
- Numerals: the digits have their own shapes in cursive, so see cursive numbers for 0 to 9.
Note that numeric dates such as 03/10/2026 mean different things in different countries, so write the month as a word on anything you send abroad.
How are months and days abbreviated?
| Months | Days |
|---|---|
| Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep (or Sept), Oct, Nov, Dec | Mon, Tue (or Tues), Wed, Thu (or Thur, Thurs), Fri, Sat, Sun |
Keep the capital, and decide on a period or none and stick to it. In cursive, abbreviations are easier to write neatly than the full words, but the full word is better on invitations and cards.
Where to go next
For more words to practise, try the cursive words page. To write whole lines with dates in them, use the cursive sentences. To check any single letter, open the cursive letters hub. For pasting cursive-style dates, the cursive text generator is the quickest way. Whichever you need, months and days in cursive are the best words to learn first.