punctuation - Are "y", "m", and "d" the singular and plural abbreviations for "year(s)", "month(s)", and "day(s)"?

Are "y", "m", and "d" the singular and plural abbreviations for "year(s)", "month(s)", and "day(s)"?

Examples:

1. The project took exactly 5y 2m 18d to complete. (If this is in fact correct, would 'm' be confused for 'meter'?)

2. It was a 5y 2m 18d project.

Again, I was asked for exactness and specificity with regard to accuracy. I don't know why the boss likes this format, but for some inexplicable reason he does. Any help is greatly and deeply appreciated. You folks on this site are amazing. (Sorry, but I had to give you your props.) :-)

Answer

First, is it the right abbreviation? No. The common abbreviation is to use "yr" for year. As for the plural, we commonly use "yrs".

Now to your examples. They're both different.

In the first sentence, you'd write the full words like this.

The project too exactly 5 years, 2 months and 18 days to complete.

As for the second sentence, it would be written as:

It was a 5-year, 2-month and 18-day project.

You've said It was 'a', so you must use the singular form.

Now to the big question... Is your usage acceptable? Well, there two things I'd see here:

1. Context


2. Information format

If for example, you want to write this format of y, m and d in a computer-generated report, there's no problem. It saves on the ink and is understandable.

However, if you're writing this method in an English assignment, it wouldn't be a good idea to do so.