"Le 2e..."

Question

My french prof and textbook use "e" after (only) 1, 2, and 3 but writing "le 2e avril" or something like that was marked wrong by the kwizbot. Is 1e, 2e, 3e a regional or vernacular construction?

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Nicholas,

You would only add ‘ e ‘ after ordinal numbers but French dates as the day and month - with the exception of ‘ le premier ‘ (which is written numerically as ‘ le 1er’ ) - are expressed with cardinal numbers.

From the lesson you linked :

“ The main difference between dates in English and in French is the numbers we use:

English dates use ordinal numbers (2nd, 3rd, 10th...) while French dates require cardinal numbers (deux (2), trois (3), dix (10)...) and NOT deuxième (2e), troisième (3e), dixième (10e)...

EXCEPTION:

For the 1st day of the month only, you always use the ordinal number le premier (1er) = the first (1st).le 1er avril 19971st of April 1997
Another link you might find useful “

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/dates/

If you still have doubts, better to raise them with whoever seems to be advising otherwise. I have not come across any date usage in French, oral or written, that differs from the content of these lessons.