Locale En Au
Use when working with the English (Australia) locale (`en-AU`) — its endonym English (Australia), Latin script, left-to-right (LTR) direction, or spoken-population data. Reference data and translation guidance (register, grammar, idiom, typography) for this specific locale; see [[locale]] for general i18n/l10n concepts (BCP 47, plural rules, RTL) that apply across all locales.
Reference data for the English (Australia) locale — endonym English (Australia), written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).
Identifiers
- BCP 47 tag:
en-AU - ISO 639-1:
en - ISO 639-3:
eng - Script: Latn (Latin)
- Region: AU (Australia)
- Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)
Speakers (approximate)
- L1 (native): 18,000,000
- L2 (additional): 7,000,000
- L1+L2 (total): 25,000,000
Base locale
This is a regional variant of Locale En 001 (English), the base/macro locale for this language.
Pluralization
CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).
- one —
i = 1 and v = 0(e.g. 1) - other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)
See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.
Translating into this locale
Apply Locale En 001 and use these Australian conventions.
- Spelling: follows British forms with some exceptions: -ise is standard, -our ("colour"), "centre", "program" (including non-computer uses), "licence"/"license" as in British English, "cheque".
- Punctuation and style: the Australian Government Style Manual is the main reference; it favors plain language, single quotation marks, and sentence-case headings.
- Dates and numbers: day/month/year ("17 October 2026"), 12-hour or 24-hour clock depending on the product, decimal point and comma thousands separator, $ for the Australian dollar (clarify "AUD" when mixed with other dollars), metric units.
- Vocabulary: "mobile", "ute", "servo", "arvo" and similar slang are spoken, informal, and not for standard copy. Place names and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander terms keep their correct spellings, and acknowledgement-of-Country wording should come from the organisation.
- Tone: friendly, relaxed, and direct; formal marketing hype sounds out of place.
Common pitfalls
- Using American spellings and the term "fall" for autumn.
- Writing slang ("g'day", "no worries") into formal text where plain English fits.
- The general pitfalls in Locale En 001 also apply.
Learn more
- Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
- Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
- Microsoft Writing Style Guide (https://learn.microsoft.com/style-guide/welcome/)
- Australian Government Style Manual (https://www.stylemanual.gov.au)