Only use the suffixes “th,” “rd,” or “st” if the year does not follow. The suffix will be typed in regular font without superscript.
For decades, please type out ‘90s, ‘80s, or 2000s. *
Examples:
My birthday is on January 22nd.
I was born on January 22, 1986.
1999 was my favorite year.
I graduated in ’09 / I graduated in 2009. (Depending on how it is said)
*When using smart/curly quotes to replace numbers in vernacular, they should always face to the left, as with contractions. When this is at the beginning of a word (’cause, ’em, ’bout, ’kay, ’19), Word will not automatically do this. To get them to face the correct way, hit Control+apostrophe+apostrophe. Alternatively, you can use all straight quotes in the whole file. Don't mix straight (') and smart (’ and ‘) quotes in the same file. This includes double quotes.
Wrong: [when referring to the 1990s] ‘90s, 90’s, 90s, ‘90’s, ’90’s
Correct: ’90s (or '90s if using straight quotes throughout the file)