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Hrsanei Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary

Date

Hi.

What is the follwoing date in American English?

7/8/03

is it July 8,1903 or July 8, 2003

How can we identify that?

Thanks
  

Top answer

Technically it could be either, but if it is written that way then that will usually be referring to 2003. Most often if it is in approximately the first half of the 20th century or before, it will be written with a 4 digit year (ex: 1931), and anything after that point will sometimes be written with a 2 digit year and sometimes with a 4 digit year. However this line does blur a bit around the middle of the 20th century, so if you see something with a 2 digit year it is always a good idea to look at the context as well.

— Sbolton

  • Technically it could be either, but if it is written that way then that will usually be referring to 2003.
  • Most often if it is in approximately the first half of the 20th century or before, it will be written with a 4 digit year (ex: 1931), and anything after that point will sometimes be written with a 2 digit year and sometimes with a 4 digit year.
  • However this line does blur a bit around the middle of the 20th century, so if you see something with a 2 digit year it is always a good idea to look at the context as well.
  • For example, in the sentence "My grandparents got married in the summer of '42," although it is referred to as only a 2 digit year, from the context we know that it refers to 1942.
  • I hope this helps.
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4 Answers
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Technically it could be either, but if it is written that way then that will usually be referring to 2003. Most often if it is in approximately the first half of the 20th century or before, it will be written with a 4 digit year (ex: 1931), and anything after that point will sometimes be written with a 2 digit year and sometimes with a 4 digit year. However this line does blur a bit around the mid
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European date format is DD/MM/YYYY. American date format is MM/DD/YYYY. If the first two digits of the year is missing, then it is common to assume the most recent year.

This issue was the crux of the millennium Y2K problem, in which some pundits forecast a dire doomsday in economic terms. I still have my millennium timepiece as a souvenir.

It is easy to get confused by these two
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Thank you very much for your help.

Do we need to use an apostrophe? such as 7/8/'07

Thanks
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No apostrophe.

Written on 8/30/11
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