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I notice that at the foot of a certificate which I have it states:
En Caracas, a los 10 días del mes de Octubre de 2009
Since the certificate was issued in Venezuela by a university I assume it must be grammatical but why is día plural here when there was clearly only one day 10/10/2009?
Just to clarify, I have quoted exactly what is says on the certificate. I am sure the month is written with an initial capital even though it is in a blackletter font (Escritura gótica)
I agree with the other answers that the period elapsed justifies the use of the plural.
The structure:
is typical of formal, mainly legal documents.
The grammatical reason why the plural is used is that a plural noun is needed after a cardinal number, as is the case with "10" (10 días).
Instead, if a cardinal number (e.g. 10) is found after the noun or an ordinal number (e.g. 10º) is found before the noun, the noun will be in singular form because the number will not quantify (i.e. express the number of days) but instead specify the day in question:
We can thus have:
Important note 1: In Spanish, months are NOT capitalized.
Important note 2: In Spanish, we don't use the preposition "en" but only the article to introduce a date.
Because this is not referring to the tenth day, even though it is coincidental, but it's talking about the days of the month that have elapsed until the certificate is obtained. In other words:
En Caracas, al haber transcurrido 10 días del mes de Octubre de 2009
It would be different if it's the tenth day:
En Caracas, en el día 10 del mes de Octubre de 2009
En Caracas, en el décimo día del mes de Octubre de 2009
Día 10/10/2009
En Caracas, a los 10 días del mes de Octubre de 2009
La oración remite a los "días" que han ido pasando o sucediéndose desde que comenzó el mes de Octubre. No esta diciendo, hoy "Día 10 de Octubre del año 2009", sino que indica los días que han avanzado o corrido desde el inicio del mes. Por esa razón se utiliza el plural "Días" en lugar de "Día".
P.D. Una forma curiosa de referirse a la fecha, aunque un tanto anticuada.
The prayer refers to the "** días **" that have been passing or succeeding each other since the month of October began. It is not saying, today "Día October 10 of the year 2009", but it indicates the days that have advanced or run since the beginning of the month. For that reason the plural "Days" is used instead of "Day".
P.S. A curious way of referring to the date, although a bit old-fashioned.
