"2020" or "2020"? Most popular questions about writing dates

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The subtleties of using spaces, dashes and capital letters.

"20th June" or "20th June"?

Letter accretions (letters after the numbers that indicate the end of the numeral) are needed in order to distinguish between quantitative and ordinal numbers: “2 people” is “two people”, and “2nd person” is a “second person”.

But there is a tradition not to use letter extensions when recording dates - for compactness.

• June 20.
• September 1.

“2020” or “2020”?

With the word "year" or with "g." extensions are not used.

• 2020 year.
• Feb 2020
• In 1990.

Without "g." or the word "year" needs a build-up.

It was in 2020

"2020" or "2020"?

The words are bounced off each other with spaces, and "g." - this is a separate word "year". If it had been written in full, this question would not have arisen - and before the abbreviation, a space is also needed.

Feb 2020

1987-23-12 or 12/23/87?

If the date is written in numbers only, the following format is used: two digits for the day, two digits for the month, and four digits for the year.

23.12.1987

In reference and especially compact publications, two digits are used to indicate the year.

23.12.87

2020-01-01 or 2020-01-01?

Numbers up to 10 are preceded by a zero to preserve the standard digital format for recording the date: the day and month are written in two digits.

01.01.2020

December 5, 2020 or "December 05, 2020"?

We do not write "05 books and 05 magazines." If the month name is written in words, zero is not used to indicate the day before the 10th.

December 5, 2020

1995 - 2005, 1995-2005 or 1995-2005?

A hyphen is placed inside one word (“someday”, “vice president”, “dark green”), and a dash is placed between words. In our case, they are different words, so a connecting dash is needed between them, which is used when writing intervals.

In Anglo-American typography, an en dash is used in number intervals, and in recent years it is often used in Russia as well. Artemy Lebedev in his "Kovodstvo" writes that the classic dash to indicate the range looks too long, so he suggests switching to a short one.

• Hyphen (-).
• En dash (-).
• Em dash (-).

The classic reference books on the Russian language and typography do not say anything about an en dash. Therefore, there are two options: you can support the traditional version, and you can follow the new trend. Just don't confuse an en dash with a hyphen.

Note also that between the numerals, written digits, the connecting dash is not stripped off with spaces.

• 2000-2020
• September 20-25.

However, if the numbers are written in words, then spaces are put: "The conference will be held on March 1st - 5th". This applies to intervals where the entry with a dash can be replaced with "from … to", "from … to …": "The conference will be held from March 1 to March 5". If we do not mean an exact interval, but an approximate value ("either that, or another number"), then a hyphen is put between the numerals, written words: "I will arrive on the first or second of March."

If, with an approximate value, the numbers are written in numbers, then the dash is preserved, as in the intervals: "I will arrive on March 1-2".

"2000-2005" or "2000-2005"?

The correct abbreviation is "yy". The letter is doubled, the dot is put once, because one word is being canceled, not two.

1995-2005

"20th century" or "20th century"?

Both options are correct. But traditionally, Roman numerals are used to designate centuries, this option is preferable.

Please note: when writing in Roman numerals, letter extension is not needed, but when using Arabic numerals, it is necessary.

March 8 or March 8?

If we are talking simply about a calendar day, then it is written in the same way as all other dates: "I will come home on March 8th."

If we are talking about a holiday date, then the name of the month is written with a capital letter: this is no longer an ordinary calendar date, but the name of the holiday: "Congratulations on March 8!"

Formally, it is correct to write down the name of any holiday according to this model, which is usually designated by date: "February 23", "May 9", "September 1" and so on. However, the writing of "November 7" and "June 12" was not fixed in the written tradition, although it is in the reference books.

Also, a numeral can be written not in numbers, but in words. In this case, it is written with a capital letter, and the name of the month - with a lowercase: "We are celebrating May Day."

"13.00", "13-00" or "13:00"?

Bonus question about time, not date. A colon is used when recording time. Dots are used when writing dates, so it is not recommended to use them when specifying time, so as not to get confused.

• 13:00
• 00:15:30