Date and time notation in Belgium

Date

According to the BIN standard (NBN Z 01-002), there are three ways to write a date in Belgium:^[1]

• yyyy-mm-dd ("2010-10-22") is common in an international environment. It is the basic form.^[2]
  yyyymmdd ("20101022") is the form of the date when used in a data transmission.^[3][4]
• dd.mm.yyyy ("22.10.2010") is used in the reference line of letters. The notation is also often used on posters and event announcements.
• fully written out ("22 oktober 2010" in Dutch, "22 octobre 2010" in French or "22. Oktober 2010" in German). This is the preferred way for running text. It is also common in letters.

To prevent confusion, the year is always written with four decimals.^[1]

Time

In written language, time is expressed exclusively in 24-hour notation using a colon in the middle. For example: 22:51.

In spoken and informal language, the 12-hour clock is still mostly used though. However, "am" or "pm" is never used. Instead, people use a sentence to make it clear (for instance "om 9 uur 's avonds" in Dutch, or "à 9 heures du soir" in French, meaning literally "at 9 o'clock in the evening").

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Datumnotatie - Wat is de notatiewijze voor een datum? [Date format - What is the notation for a date?]" (in Dutch). Taaltelefoon. Vlaanderen. 2010-04-19. http://taaltelefoon.vlaanderen.be/nlapps/docs/default.asp?id=1529. 
2. ^ VVKSO. BIN-NORMEN. Brussels: LICAP CVBA. ISBN 9789068586510. http://www.boek.be/boek/bin-normen.  Short version: [1]
3. ^ http://users.skynet.be/palm-mar/Taal_NED_bin_norm.htm
4. ^ http://trac2.assembla.com/Team6GPR/export/3/BIN-normen.pdf