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I am writing a mobile app that should have text in Canadian French and English. I was given direction by the designers to put text in English that must fit on a button, based on how many days and hours are left in a time frame.

As an example, if the button needs to contain the English text, "10 days - 3 hours", what would be an understandable abbreviation in fr-CA?

I read on another posting that hours would be with standard metric abbreviations, but I'm not sure about days.

Would it be: "10 jours - 3 h" or "10 j - 3 h"

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  • French Canadian and French are the same here.
    – Lambie
    Feb 3, 2022 at 21:58
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    10 days 3 hours, no hyphen in English. I see no reason to include a hyphen in either language.
    – Lambie
    Feb 4, 2022 at 17:14

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Either "10 jours - 3 heures" (do not mix long and short units) or "10 j - 3 h" although I would probably use a different delimiter or no delimiter at all because these forms might be understood to mean 10 days minus 3 hours.

What I would use: 10 j 3 h

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    Languages such as JavaScript provide i18n libraries for this kind of thing. const names = const times = new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat('fr-ca', { style: "long" }); console.log(times.format('2', 'days')) produces "dans 2 jours". I've never used it, so I'm not aware of its full capabilities. ¶ But if you can implement a version using that or something like it, it will automatically work for all languages, not only two, and individual users will see things in their preferred format.
    – Ray Butterworth
    Feb 4, 2022 at 2:33
  • I also initially thought you meant 10 days minus 3 hours ? If it's the case I'd either say "9 jours et 21 heures" or "9 j 21 h" but no mix. Sometimes we can find "jr" as abbreviation for jour, but "jrs" for plural. And "hr" / "hrs" for hour/hours. Sometimes a period is added : "j." and "h." For an application you're probably looking for the shortest option.
    – Ben
    Feb 6, 2022 at 14:08
  • @Ben I dont remember ever seing jr or jrs for day(s). I sometimes see hr / hrs but they look either archaic or an anglicism. Adding a dot breaks the units naming rules.
    – jlliagre
    Feb 6, 2022 at 14:31
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    You're correct, and this site confirms the "h" without period as the only correct abbreviation : btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/clefsfp/…
    – Ben
    Feb 7, 2022 at 15:33

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