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.
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16 July 2010 |
In British English, the numeric form of the date above is, therefore:
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16/07/10 |
Note that, in American English, dates are written in the order month–day–year, with a comma between the day and the year.
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July 16, 2010 |
In American English, the numeric form of the date above is, therefore:
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07/16/10 |
- Days of the week
Do not use a comma after the day of the week when it precedes a date.
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Tuesday 6 July 2010 |
- Years
In running text, use all four digits when referring to a year (1971, not ’71). Academic years should be hyphenated thus:
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the 2011-2012 academic year |
- Decades
Use numbers to refer to decades rather than writing them out. Do not add an apostrophe before the plural s.
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We were all born in the mid-1920s. |
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.