Language Portal of Canada
www.ourlanguages.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Institutional links
Guided Tour of the Portal
-
Language Portal
-
Well Written, Well Said
-
Discover
-
From Our Contributors
Stay connected!
Information
-
Proactive Disclosure
Abbreviating the months
Recommend or share this page by e-mail, social bookmarking or social networking
Share this pageShare this page
If you wish to recommend or share this page by e-mail, social bookmarking or social networking, click on the icon of your choice:
Access to the proposed sites is free, but you must have a user account. Access to these sites may vary depending on your browser (for example, Internet Explorer 6 does not support all the sites). You must make sure that your browser is up to date. In addition, depending on which sharing method you have chosen, some characters (accented letters, apostrophes or other symbols) in the title of the page you are recommending may be displayed incorrectly or missing. You will need to make these corrections yourself before recommending the page to your contacts.
Note: No e-mail or personal information will be retained. For more information on privacy policies and practices that apply to the Language Portal of Canada, see the Government of Canada Privacy Statement.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking allows you to save your favourite links on the Internet through social bookmarking sites such as Google Bookmarks or Reddit. These sites offer many advantages. You can:
Social bookmarking sites are usually free, but you must subscribe to use them. Social bookmarking is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification and social indexing.
Social networking
Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Linkedln, are Internet platforms that allow you to interact online and create interconnected Web communities. You can create personal profiles, establish lists of users with whom you have a common connection or establish new relationships.
To exchange ideas with other members, you can post messages to your personal page, send e-mails and instant messages or share files.
Comments
Please do not hesitate to contact us at noslangues.ourlanguages@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca if you have any comments or suggestions about this feature.
Question:
What are the abbreviations for the months? Are they always abbreviated to three letters?
Answer:
There are as many approaches and styles to abbreviating the names of the months as there are grammar books. But, if you're going to abbreviate the months, the three-letter rule is probably the best one to follow. Note that the month of May is not followed by a period.
- Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Doc.
Certain sources (e.g. The Canadian Style and A Canadian Writer's Reference) recommend writing the names out in full and abbreviating the months only in layouts such as tables, lists and forms where space is limited.
Also, you should keep in mind the level of formality of the document. If your document is formal, write the months out in full. If it is less formal, the abbreviations will do.
