What is the difference between "haribulan" and "tarikh"?
Hi, can a Malay speaker please tell me what is the difference between the words: "haribulan" (hb) and "tarikh"? I know that both of them mean "date", but I was wondering if they can be used interchangeably? Terima kasih terlebih dahulu (thanks in advance) for your answer! :)

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Answer

Basically Haribulan is hari+ bulan= day+month= day of the month
Therefore HB- haribulan means the day.
Tarikh is basically date, the general meaning of date.
So a sentence would be.
Tarikh hari ini adalah 6HB BULAN NOVEMBER  TAHUN 2015
(Today's date is the 6th, month of November. year of 2015

Answer

Syukran lak for this very informative explanation! :)

Answer

Hello,
For Informal Malay,Usually "haribulan(hb)" and "tarikh" are same meaning.
For example If we want to ask someone about the date:-

Hari ini berapa haribulan? Or Berapa tarikh hari ini?

The definition is same which mean:-"What's today's date?

But,for formal Malay,usually we say "haribulan (hb)" when we want to say the date in complete version which comprises the number of day,the month and the year.

For example:-

Hari ini, 12 haribulan Mac 2015.Which means:-Today is 12th Mac 2015.

However, for formal speaking or writing: "tarikh" means date.

For example:

Tarikh : 12 Mac 2015 (in writing,we usually don't put HB or haribulan after the number,but it considered ok if you want to put HB )

In English version

Date: 12th Mac 2015.