Date::M...english(3)

📦
version 7.00 · 13 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 NAME 💖

Date::Manip::Lang::english — English language support, bestie. This is the Date::Manip::Lang::english(3) page and it's literally the English word list. 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

Okay so this module is basically a giant curated list of words and expressions that back up the language. It is not intended to be used directly — other Date::Manip modules will load it as needed. It's giving backstage crew, not main character. 💅

✨ LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS ✨

The following is a list of all language words and expressions used to write times and/or dates.

All strings are case insensitive. (yes queen, JANUARY and january both count 🫶)

🦋 Month names and abbreviations 🦋

When writing out the name of the month, several different variations may exist including full names and abbreviations.

The following month names may be used:

  • January
  • February
  • March
  • April
  • May
  • June
  • July
  • August
  • September
  • October
  • November
  • December

The following abbreviations may be used:

  • Jan, Jan.
  • Feb, Feb.
  • Mar, Mar.
  • Apr, Apr.
  • May, May.
  • Jun, Jun.
  • Jul, Jul.
  • Aug, Aug.
  • Sep, Sept, Sep., Sept.
  • Oct, Oct.
  • Nov, Nov.
  • Dec, Dec.

🌈 Day names and abbreviations 🌈

When writing out the name of the day, several different variations may exist including full names and abbreviations.

The following day names may be used:

  • Monday
  • Tuesday
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Sunday

The following abbreviations may be used:

  • Mon, Mon.
  • Tue, Tues, Tue., Tues.
  • Wed, Wed.
  • Thu, Thur, Thu., Thur.
  • Fri, Fri.
  • Sat, Sat.
  • Sun, Sun.

The following short (1-2 characters) abbreviations may be used:

  • M
  • T
  • W
  • Th
  • F
  • Sa
  • S

🍓 Delta field names 🍓

These are the names (and abbreviations) for the fields in a delta. There are 7 fields: years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds.

The names and abbreviations for these fields are:

  • years — years, y, yr, year, yrs
  • months — months, m, mon, month, mons
  • weeks — weeks, w, wk, wks, week
  • days — days, d, day
  • hours — hours, h, hr, hrs, hour
  • minutes — minutes, mn, min, minute, mins
  • seconds — seconds, s, sec, second, secs

🌸 Morning/afternoon times 🌸

This is a list of expressions used to designate morning or afternoon time when a time is entered as a 12-hour time rather than a 24-hour time. For example, in English, the time "17:00" could be specified as "5:00 PM". Periodt.

Morning and afternoon time may be designated by the following sets of words:

  • AM, A.M.
  • PM, P.M.

💜 Each or every 💜

There are a list of words that specify every occurrence of something. These are used in the following phrases:

EACH Monday
EVERY Monday
EVERY month

The following words may be used:

  • each
  • every

🧚 Next/Previous/Last occurrence 🧚

There are a list of words that may be used to specify the next, previous, or last occurrence of something. These words could be used in the following phrases:

NEXT week

LAST Tuesday
PREVIOUS Tuesday

LAST day of the month

The following words may be used:

Next occurrence:

  • next
  • following

Previous occurrence:

  • previous
  • last

Last occurrence:

  • last
  • final

👑 Delta words for going forward/backward in time 👑

When parsing deltas, there are words that may be used to specify the delta will refer to a time in the future or to a time in the past (relative to some date). In English, for example, you might say:

IN 5 days
5 days AGO

The following words may be used to specify deltas that refer to dates in the past or future respectively:

  • ago
  • past
  • in the past
  • earlier
  • before now
  • hence
  • in
  • later
  • future
  • in the future
  • from now

💼 Business mode 💼

This contains two lists of words which can be used to specify a standard (i.e. non-business) delta or a business delta.

Previously, it was used to tell whether the delta was approximate or exact, but now this list is not used except to force the delta to be standard. (rip to that old job, it got laid off 😭)

The following words may be used:

  • exactly
  • approximately

The following words may be used to specify a business delta:

  • business

🔢 Numbers 🔢

Numbers may be spelled out in a variety of ways. The following sets correspond to the numbers from 1 to 53:

  • 1st, first, one
  • 2nd, second, two
  • 3rd, third, three
  • 4th, fourth, four
  • 5th, fifth, five
  • 6th, sixth, six
  • 7th, seventh, seven
  • 8th, eighth, eight
  • 9th, ninth, nine
  • 10th, tenth, ten
  • 11th, eleventh, eleven
  • 12th, twelfth, twelve
  • 13th, thirteenth, thirteen
  • 14th, fourteenth, fourteen
  • 15th, fifteenth, fifteen
  • 16th, sixteenth, sixteen
  • 17th, seventeenth, seventeen
  • 18th, eighteenth, eighteen
  • 19th, nineteenth, nineteen
  • 20th, twentieth, twenty
  • 21st, twenty-first, twenty-one
  • 22nd, twenty-second, twenty-two
  • 23rd, twenty-third, twenty-three
  • 24th, twenty-fourth, twenty-four
  • 25th, twenty-fifth, twenty-five
  • 26th, twenty-sixth, twenty-six
  • 27th, twenty-seventh, twenty-seven
  • 28th, twenty-eighth, twenty-eight
  • 29th, twenty-ninth, twenty-nine
  • 30th, thirtieth, thirty
  • 31st, thirty-first, thirty-one
  • 32nd, thirty-two, thirty-second
  • 33rd, thirty-three, thirty-third
  • 34th, thirty-four, thirty-fourth
  • 35th, thirty-five, thirty-fifth
  • 36th, thirty-six, thirty-sixth
  • 37th, thirty-seven, thirty-seventh
  • 38th, thirty-eight, thirty-eighth
  • 39th, thirty-nine, thirty-ninth
  • 40th, forty, fortieth
  • 41st, forty-one, forty-first
  • 42nd, forty-two, forty-second
  • 43rd, forty-three, forty-third
  • 44th, forty-four, forty-fourth
  • 45th, forty-five, forty-fifth
  • 46th, forty-six, forty-sixth
  • 47th, forty-seven, forty-seventh
  • 48th, forty-eight, forty-eighth
  • 49th, forty-nine, forty-ninth
  • 50th, fifty, fiftieth
  • 51st, fifty-one, fifty-first
  • 52nd, fifty-two, fifty-second
  • 53rd, fifty-three, fifty-third

🙈 Ignored words 🙈

In writing out dates in common forms, there are a number of words that are typically not important. (they're just there for the vibes, we ignore them 💀)

There is frequently a word that appears in a phrase to designate that a time is going to be specified next. In English, you would use the word AT in the example:

December 3 at 12:00

The following words may be used:

  • at

Another word is used to designate one member of a set. In English, you would use the words IN or OF:

1st day OF December
1st day IN December

The following words may be used:

  • of
  • in

Another word is used to specify that something is on a certain date. In English, you would use ON:

ON July 5th

The following words may be used:

  • on

⭐ Words that set the date, time, or both ⭐

There are some words that can be used to specify a date, a time, or both relative to now.

Words that set the date are similar to the English words 'yesterday' or 'tomorrow'. These are specified as a delta which is added to the current time to get a date. The time is NOT set however, so the delta is only partially used (it should only include year, month, week, and day fields).

The following words may be used:

ereyesterday         -0:0:0:2:0:0:0
overmorrow           +0:0:0:2:0:0:0
today                0:0:0:0:0:0:0
tomorrow             +0:0:0:1:0:0:0
yesterday            -0:0:0:1:0:0:0

Words that set only the time of day are similar to the English words 'noon' or 'midnight'.

The following words may be used:

midnight             00:00:00
noon                 12:00:00

Words that set the entire time and date (relative to the current time and date) are also available.

In English, the word now is one of these. 💫

The following words may be used:

  • now — 0:0:0:0:0:0:0

Hour/Minute/Second separators 🕐

When you're specifying the time of day, the most common separator is a colon (:) and bestie it can be used for both separators. One lil character doing double duty, we love a multitasker. 💅

Some languages use different pairs tho. For example, French lets you write the time as 13h30:20, so it would use the following pairs:

: :
h :

The first column is the hour-minute separator and the second column is the minute-second separator. Both are perl regular expressions. 👑

When creating a new translation, be aware that regular expressions with utf-8 characters may be tricky. For example, don't include the expression [x] where x is a utf-8 character. 😭

A pair of colons is ALWAYS allowed for all languages. If a language allows additional pairs, they are listed here:

Not defined in this language

Fractional second separator 🍓

When you're specifying fractional seconds, the most common way is to use a decimal point (.). Some languages may specify a different separator that might be used. If this is done, it is a regular expression.

The decimal point is ALWAYS allowed for all languages. If a language allows another separator, it is listed here:

Not defined in this language

💀 KNOWN BUGS 💀

None known.

Periodt. No bugs, no drama, we're thriving. ✨

🫶 BUGS AND QUESTIONS 🫶

Please refer to the Date::Manip::Problems documentation for information on submitting bug reports or questions to the author.

Like, if something's acting up or you just have questions, that's the doc you wanna slide into. 📩

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • Date::Manip — main module documentation

👑 LICENSE 👑

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Free as in go off, bestie, do whatever (within Perl's terms obvs). 💖

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org)

And that's the whole page, no cap! 🎀 This was perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-09-01, from the Date::M...english(3) manual. Go forth and parse ur dates, icon. 💜🦋

📦 where this page comes from