How to write dates?

In British English, dates are written in the order day, month and year. Note that the names of months always begin with capital letters.

Examples are given below.

• 15 August 1990
• 28 March 2000

Sometimes, the last two letters of the number word (st, nd, rd or th) are added to the date.

• 15th August 1990
• 28th March 2000

A comma is normally inserted between the month and the year when the date comes inside a sentence.

• I was born on 26th May, 1979.

In American English, it is common to write the month first and to put a comma before the year. Americans write August 15, 1990.

The date may be written entirely in figures. Different formats are possible.

• 30.3.2005
• 19/2/2002
• 30-2-1999

All Figure Dates

All figure dates are written differently in British and American English. British people put the day first while Americans begin with the month. So for example, 10.3.2005 means 10 March 2005 in Britain and October 3, 2005 in America.

The names of decades are often written like this: the 1980s.

To distinguish between dates before and after the birth of Christ, we use the abbreviations BC and AD. BC follows the date; AD can come before or after the date.

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