Oftentimes, we find ourselves in situation where we are forced to interpret dates that are written in documents that require our attention as we try to figure out which digits represent the day, the month and the year. Similarly, we are oftentimes are told that “I will come by at eight O clock” or “pick me up at the airport at five O clock”, forgetting to inquire whether it is eight O clock or five O clock in the morning or the evening. Situations such as these always result in unwanted frustration or the wastage of time which could have been spent doing something else meaningful.
The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has sought to address this situation by educating the general public of the standardized and internationally recognized way of writing dates and times to eliminate confusion and allow for easy interpretation. This method follows the principles set out in the international standard ISO 8601 which deals with numeric representations of date and time. The standard outlines the procedure for using the internationally acceptable formats. DATES The standard recommends two (2) formats for writing the date as listed below: 1. All numeric format (only numbers and hyphens or dashes are used): Example: 2011-02-16 The all numeric format places the year first in four (4) digits followed by the month in two (2) digits and then the date also in two (2) digits. It must be noted that the year, month and date are separated by a hyphen or dash (-) and not a slash (/). 2. Non-numeric format: Example: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 The non-numeric format is written starting with the day, followed by the month and the date and then the year. However, it would also be correct if the day was left out. It must be noted that the abbreviations “st, th, rd and nd” are not used under the ISO 8601 Standard. Example 1: Wednesday, May 26, 2010. Note: Where the commas are placed and also there no “st, th, rd and nd” TIME The international twenty four hour clock system should be used instead of am or pm. Say eight hours (08:00 h) instead of eight O clock and, sixteen hours thirty (16:30 h) instead of Four thirty (4:30 pm or sixteen thirty hours) NB. The day starts at 00:00 h and ends at 23:5999… For further information please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0069, 219-0066, 219-0065.
