How to write the date

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Linguistic Recommendation

How to Write the Date in English

All numbers

The Translation Bureau recommends that a date containing only numbers be written in the following order:

  • year-month-day
    • 2008-03-04 represents March 4, 2008
    • 2008-04-03 represents April 3, 2008

Note: Use a hyphen to separate the elements of the date.

Words and numbers

The Translation Bureau recommends that a date containing words and numbers be written in the following order:

  • month-day-year
    • January 2, 2008 (not 2 January 2008)

How to Write the Date in French

All numbers

The Translation Bureau recommends that a date containing only numbers be written in the following order, just as in English:

  • year-month-day
    • 2008-03-04 represents March 4, 2008
    • 2008-04-03 represents April 3, 2008

Note: Use a hyphen to separate the elements of the date.

Words and numbers

Write the date using the following order:

  • day-month-year
    • le 2 janvier 2008

For a breakdown of the rules for writing the date in French, see our Linguistic Reminder Date : règles d'écriture (in French only).

Linguistic Recommendation reference number

REC-5/2007-12

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How to write the date (REC-5/2007-12) - Comments

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