diff --git a/ionic/components/datetime/test/datetime.spec.ts b/ionic/components/datetime/test/datetime.spec.ts
index c8da46a3cee..9565a52170f 100644
--- a/ionic/components/datetime/test/datetime.spec.ts
+++ b/ionic/components/datetime/test/datetime.spec.ts
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@ describe('DateTime', () => {
 
   // pt-br
   var customLocale: datetime.LocaleData = {
-    dayShort: [
+    dayNames: [
       'domingo',
       'segunda-feira',
       'ter\u00e7a-feira',
diff --git a/ionic/util/datetime-util.ts b/ionic/util/datetime-util.ts
index cff0f334562..92ca06835bd 100644
--- a/ionic/util/datetime-util.ts
+++ b/ionic/util/datetime-util.ts
@@ -266,33 +266,38 @@ export function updateDate(existingData: DateTimeData, newData: any) {
 
 
 export function parseTemplate(template: string): string[] {
-  var formats: string[] = [];
+  let formats: string[] = [];
+
+  template = template.replace(/[^\w\s]/gi, ' ');
 
-  var foundFormats: {index: number; format: string}[] = [];
   FORMAT_KEYS.forEach(format => {
-    var index = template.indexOf(format.f);
-    if (index > -1) {
-      template = template.replace(format.f, replacer(format.f));
-      foundFormats.push({
-        index: index,
-        format: format.f,
-      });
+    if (format.f.length > 1 && template.indexOf(format.f) > -1 && template.indexOf(format.f + format.f.charAt(0)) < 0) {
+      template = template.replace(format.f, ' ' + format.f + ' ');
     }
   });
 
-  // sort the found formats back to their original order
-  foundFormats.sort((a, b) => (a.index > b.index) ? 1 : (a.index < b.index) ? -1 : 0);
-
-  return foundFormats.map(val => val.format);
-}
-
+  let words = template.split(' ').filter(w => w.length > 0);
+  words.forEach((word, i) => {
+    if (word.length) {
+      FORMAT_KEYS.forEach(format => {
+        if (word === format.f) {
+          if (word === FORMAT_A || word === FORMAT_a) {
+            // this format is an am/pm format, so it's an "a" or "A"
+            if ((formats.indexOf(FORMAT_h) < 0 && formats.indexOf(FORMAT_hh) < 0) ||
+                (words[i - 1] !== FORMAT_m && words[i - 1] !== FORMAT_mm)) {
+              // template does not already have a 12-hour format
+              // or this am/pm format doesn't have a minute format immediately before it
+              // so do not treat this word "a" or "A" as an am/pm format
+              return;
+            }
+          }
+          formats.push(word);
+        }
+      });
+    }
+  });
 
-function replacer(originalStr: string): string {
-  let r = '';
-  for (var i = 0; i < originalStr.length; i++) {
-    r += '^';
-  }
-  return r;
+  return formats;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/ionic/util/test/datetime-util.spec.ts b/ionic/util/test/datetime-util.spec.ts
index c9b06d0f35d..f5030ba3e1c 100644
--- a/ionic/util/test/datetime-util.spec.ts
+++ b/ionic/util/test/datetime-util.spec.ts
@@ -249,36 +249,87 @@ describe('getValueFromFormat', () => {
 
 describe('parseTemplate', () => {
 
-  it('should get formats from template "a A m mm h hh H HH D DD DDD DDDD M MM MMM MMMM YY YYYY"', () => {
-    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('a A m mm h hh H HH D DD DDD DDDD M MM MMM MMMM YY YYYY');
-    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('a');
-    expect(formats[1]).toEqual('A');
-    expect(formats[2]).toEqual('m');
-    expect(formats[3]).toEqual('mm');
-    expect(formats[4]).toEqual('h');
-    expect(formats[5]).toEqual('hh');
-    expect(formats[6]).toEqual('H');
-    expect(formats[7]).toEqual('HH');
-    expect(formats[8]).toEqual('D');
-    expect(formats[9]).toEqual('DD');
-    expect(formats[10]).toEqual('DDD');
-    expect(formats[11]).toEqual('DDDD');
-    expect(formats[12]).toEqual('M');
-    expect(formats[13]).toEqual('MM');
-    expect(formats[14]).toEqual('MMM');
-    expect(formats[15]).toEqual('MMMM');
-    expect(formats[16]).toEqual('YY');
-    expect(formats[17]).toEqual('YYYY');
-  });
-
-  it('should get formats from template YYMMMMDDHma', () => {
-    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('YYMMMMDDHma');
+  it('should not parse D thats apart of a word', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('D Days');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(1);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('D');
+  });
+
+  it('should not parse D thats apart of a word', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('DD Days');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(1);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('DD');
+  });
+
+  it('should not parse m thats apart of a word', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('m mins');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(1);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('m');
+  });
+
+  it('should not parse M thats apart of a word', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('mm Minutes');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(1);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('mm');
+  });
+
+  it('should not pickup "a" within 12-hour, but its not the am/pm', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('hh:mm is a time');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(2);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('hh');
+    expect(formats[1]).toEqual('mm');
+  });
+
+  it('should allow am/pm when using 12-hour and no spaces', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('hh:mma');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(3);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('hh');
+    expect(formats[1]).toEqual('mm');
+    expect(formats[2]).toEqual('a');
+  });
+
+  it('should allow am/pm when using 12-hour', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('hh:mm a');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(3);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('hh');
+    expect(formats[1]).toEqual('mm');
+    expect(formats[2]).toEqual('a');
+  });
+
+  it('should not add am/pm when not using 24-hour', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('HH:mm a');
+    expect(formats.length).toEqual(2);
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('HH');
+    expect(formats[1]).toEqual('mm');
+  });
+
+  it('should get formats from template "m mm h hh H HH D DD DDD DDDD M MM MMM MMMM YY YYYY"', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('m mm h hh H HH D DD DDD DDDD M MM MMM MMMM YY YYYY');
+    expect(formats[0]).toEqual('m');
+    expect(formats[1]).toEqual('mm');
+    expect(formats[2]).toEqual('h');
+    expect(formats[3]).toEqual('hh');
+    expect(formats[4]).toEqual('H');
+    expect(formats[5]).toEqual('HH');
+    expect(formats[6]).toEqual('D');
+    expect(formats[7]).toEqual('DD');
+    expect(formats[8]).toEqual('DDD');
+    expect(formats[9]).toEqual('DDDD');
+    expect(formats[10]).toEqual('M');
+    expect(formats[11]).toEqual('MM');
+    expect(formats[12]).toEqual('MMM');
+    expect(formats[13]).toEqual('MMMM');
+    expect(formats[14]).toEqual('YY');
+    expect(formats[15]).toEqual('YYYY');
+  });
+
+  it('should get formats from template YYMMMMDDHHmm', () => {
+    var formats = datetime.parseTemplate('YYMMMMDDHHmm');
     expect(formats[0]).toEqual('YY');
     expect(formats[1]).toEqual('MMMM');
     expect(formats[2]).toEqual('DD');
-    expect(formats[3]).toEqual('H');
-    expect(formats[4]).toEqual('m');
-    expect(formats[5]).toEqual('a');
+    expect(formats[3]).toEqual('HH');
+    expect(formats[4]).toEqual('mm');
   });
 
   it('should get formats from template MM/DD/YYYY', () => {
@@ -741,7 +792,7 @@ describe('parseISODate', () => {
 
 // pt-br
 var customLocale: datetime.LocaleData = {
-  dayShort: [
+  dayNames: [
     'domingo',
     'segunda-feira',
     'ter\u00e7a-feira',