5.6 Dates

Do not use the endings -st, -nd, -rd or -th with a figure in a date. Note that, in British English, dates are written in the order day–month–year, without internal punctuation.

In British English, the numeric form of the date above is, therefore:

Note that, in American English, dates are written in the order month–day–year, with a comma between the day and the year.

In American English, the numeric form of the date above is, therefore:

5.6.1 Days of the week

Do not use a comma after the day of the week when it precedes a date.

5.6.2 Years

In running text, use all four digits when referring to a year (1971, not ‘71). Academic years should be hyphenated thus:

5.6.3 Decades

Use numbers to refer to decades rather than writing them out. Do not add an apostrophe before the plural ?s.

In the case of the period 2000 to 2020, use a circumlocution such as the first decade of the twenty-first century or the second decade of the twenty-first century.