> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rime.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dates and times

> How Rime automatically expands dates and clock times into spoken form, and which formats are supported.

Rime expands dates and clock times into their spoken form automatically. Most common formats work without any preprocessing.

<Note>
  For a tour of text normalization across all categories, see [Text normalization](/docs/text-normalization). For specific patterns Rime doesn't expand cleanly, see [Pre-normalizing text](/docs/pre-normalization).
</Note>

## Dates

Rime supports a variety of date formats, with year:

| Format                        | Example                 | Reads as                                 |
| :---------------------------- | :---------------------- | :--------------------------------------- |
| MM/DD/YYYY                    | `10/12/2024`            | october twelfth, twenty twenty-four      |
| YYYY-MM-DD (ISO)              | `2021-03-15`            | the fifteenth of march twenty twenty-one |
| M.D.YYYY                      | `8.8.2018`              | august eighth twenty eighteen            |
| Month name + day + year       | `April 2, 2024`         | april second, twenty twenty-four         |
| Day + month name + year       | `5 July 2015`           | the fifth of july twenty fifteen         |
| Year alone                    | `1998`                  | nineteen ninety-eight                    |
| Month + year                  | `May 2019`              | may twenty nineteen                      |
| Month + ordinal day (no year) | `January 1st`, `Jan. 1` | january first                            |

<Note>
  US (`MM/DD/YYYY`) and ISO (`YYYY-MM-DD`) forms read with slightly different surface phrasing — "may twelfth..." vs. "the fifteenth of march...". If wording consistency matters, pick one format.
</Note>

## Times

| Format           | Example                                             | Reads as                           |
| :--------------- | :-------------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------- |
| Clock + meridiem | `3:45pm`, `10:30 AM`                                | three forty-five PM; ten thirty AM |
| 24-hour          | `15:45`                                             | fifteen forty-five                 |
| On-the-hour      | `6:00`                                              | six o'clock                        |
| Dotted meridiem  | `6 a.m.`, `2 o'clock p. m.`                         | six AM; two o'clock PM             |
| With time zone   | `9:00 AM PST`                                       | nine AM PST                        |
| Word forms       | `noon`, `midnight`, `quarter past 6`, `half past 6` | as written                         |
| Ranges           | `9:20-9:45`                                         | nine twenty to nine forty-five     |

Both `am/pm` and `a.m./p.m.` are accepted, with or without spaces between the time and the meridiem.

## Known gaps

A few specific date and time patterns aren't reliably expanded — most commonly MM/DD without a year (`04/21`), month-and-year alone (`07/2025`), bare hours with meridiem (`3pm` without `:00`), decade names (`1990s`), financial periods (`Q1 2025`, `1H 2024`), and European `15h30` times. For the full list and a drop-in prompt template to handle them, see [Pre-normalizing text](/docs/pre-normalization).

## Related

* [Numbers, currency, and measurements](/docs/numbers) for years used as standalone numbers, ranges, and ordinals
* [Punctuation](/docs/punctuation) for controlling pauses around dates and times