Common English to Russian Translation Errors. Part 7

This post explains some of the frequent errors associated with translating references to date and time into Russian.

Preferred date format

The recommended date format is DD.MM.YYYY. However, it is a good idea not to change the original format unless it is absolutely necessary. Changing numbers to letters and vice versa will trigger false positive errors during quality assurance. Since those errors take time to check even though they are false positives, it is best to avoid them if possible.

Original	Correct	Incorrect
8/10/2004	10.08.2004	8/10/2004
April 14, 2009	14 апреля 2009 г.	14.04.2009 (correct, but suboptimal for QA reasons)

Appending “г.” to year

Unless the date is written like this, “11.06.2008,” you must add the abbreviation “г.” after the year. This helps avoid ambiguity that may otherwise occur when it is difficult to tell whether 2008 is a number or year.

Original	Correct	Incorrect
2000 Achievements	Достижения в 2000 г.	Достижения 2000

Years in periods

When years are mentioned in time frames, you must:

• write years in full;
• use an em-dash between them without spaces;
• add “гг.”

Original	Correct	Incorrect
In 1981 to 1985, we …	В 1981—1985 гг. мы …	В 1981-1985 гг. or В 1981-85 гг.

Preferred time format

The recommended time format is HH:MM:SS. Note that a colon is used as a delimiter.

Original	Correct	Incorrect
12.48	12:48	12.48
5 pm	17:00	5 вечера or 5 п. п.

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