How to properly concatenate dates?

Question

We organize multi-day events, and we want to write a sentence that informs people of when these events will take place.

Suppose one of these events is taking place on Jan/29, Jan/30, Jan/31, Feb/4 and Feb/5 and on each day, it will start at 2PM and end at 5PM.

Note the variations of , and and.

January 29th, 30th, 31st, February 4th and 5th, from 2PM to 5PM

or

January 29th, 30th and 31st, February 4th and 5th, from 2PM to 5PM

or

January 29th, 30th and 31st and February 4th and 5th, from 2PM to 5PM

or

January 29th, 30th and 31st, and February 4th and 5th, from 2PM to 5PM

or

Any better example you can come up with :D

What is the best way, in English, to put all that information in a sentence? Are there differences from BrE and AmE for this situation?

The principal difference between BrE and AmE is that BrE puts days before months (although AmE format when the month is spelled out as here is not unknown). 29–31 January and 4–5 February, from 2:00 to 5:00pm on each day. — Andrew Leach, Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 21:24
@AndrewLeach is quite correct, from my experience. Anyway, what's the context? Are you just giving dates, or writing a full sentence? What level of formality are you aiming for? Is this in e.g. a flier or a formal invitation letter? — Noldorin, Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 21:45
It would also be possible and reasonable to say "From 2 PM to 5 PM on January 29, 30, and 31, and February 1 and 2" or "From 2 PM to 5 PM on each day from 29 January through 2 February". — tautophile, Commented May 18, 2018 at 2:37
One might want express "2 PM to 5 PM" as a 24-hour clock time, i.e., as "1400 to 1700"... but in this case, let's assume not. — tautophile, Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 22:10

Jason Bassford · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-17 05:32:50Z

-1

The simplest method is to use a range of numbers and leave out the "PM" part. (It should be obvious that it doesn't start at 2:00 a.m.)

January 29–31 and February 4–5, 2:00–5:00.

Use en dashes rather than hyphens. :)

answered Apr 17, 2018 at 5:32

Jason Bassford

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