Abbreviate months of the year

Learning Objectives Correctly write the standard three- or four-letter abbreviation for all 12 months. Identify the full month name from its abbreviation. Use a capital letter at the beginning of every month's abbreviation. Place a period at the end of each applicable month's abbreviation. Explain why short months like May, June, and July are typically not abbreviated. Use month abbreviations correctly when writing dates in sentences. Have you ever seen a date like 'Sept. 15' on a homework assignment and wondered why the month's name was so short? 🗓️ Let's become abbreviation detectives and find out! Today, we will learn how to write the shortened versions, or abbreviations, for the months of the year. This is a useful skill that helps us write...

TermDefinitionExample AbbreviationA shortened form of a word or phrase. It helps us write faster and save space.The abbreviation for 'Doctor' is 'Dr.' Proper NounA name for a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter.The months of the year, like 'January' and 'February', are proper nouns. Capital LetterThe large form of a letter (A, B, C) used at the beginning of sentences and for all proper nouns.We write 'December', not 'december'. PeriodA punctuation mark (.) that is used at the end of many abbreviations.The abbreviation for January is 'Jan.' Standard AbbreviationThe most common and accepted short form for a word that everyone agrees to use.The standard abbreviation for 'M...

The Capitalization Rule Always begin the abbreviation for a month with a capital letter. Because the months of the year are proper nouns, their shortened forms must also be treated as proper nouns. This rule applies to every single month. The Period Rule Place a period at the end of most month abbreviations. The period shows the reader that the word has been shortened on purpose. It signals that it is an abbreviation. The Short Month Exception Months with four or fewer letters are usually not abbreviated. The months May, June, and July are already very short. Abbreviating them doesn't save much space, so we just write out the full name.