diff --git a/crates/nu-std/std/dt.nu b/crates/nu-std/std/dt.nu
index 4ee76c0cb2..9a81f55d3d 100644
--- a/crates/nu-std/std/dt.nu
+++ b/crates/nu-std/std/dt.nu
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def borrow-minute [from: record, current: record] {
 
 def borrow-second [from: record, current: record] {
     mut current = $current
-    $current.millisecond = $current.millisecond + 1_000
+    $current.nanosecond = $current.nanosecond + 1_000_000_000
     $current.second = $current.second - 1
     if $current.second < 0 {
         $current = (borrow-minute $from $current)
@@ -88,37 +88,33 @@ def borrow-second [from: record, current: record] {
     $current
 }
 
-def borrow-millisecond [from: record, current: record] {
-    mut current = $current
-    $current.microsecond = $current.microsecond + 1_000_000
-    $current.millisecond = $current.millisecond - 1
-    if $current.millisecond < 0 {
-        $current = (borrow-second $from $current)
+# Subtract later from earlier datetime and return the unit differences as a record
+# Example:
+# > dt datetime-diff 2023-05-07T04:08:45+12:00 2019-05-10T09:59:12-07:00
+# ╭─────────────┬────╮
+# │ year        │ 3  │
+# │ month       │ 11 │
+# │ day         │ 26 │
+# │ hour        │ 23 │
+# │ minute      │ 9  │
+# │ second      │ 33 │
+# │ millisecond │ 0  │
+# │ microsecond │ 0  │
+# │ nanosecond  │ 0  │
+# ╰─────────────┴────╯
+export def datetime-diff [
+        later: datetime, # a later datetime
+        earlier: datetime  # earlier (starting) datetime
+    ] {
+    if $earlier > $later {
+        let start = (metadata $later).span.start 
+        let end = (metadata $earlier).span.end
+        error make {msg: "Incompatible arguments", label: {start:$start, end:$end, text:$"First datetime must be >= second, but was actually ($later - $earlier) less than it."}}
     }
+    let from_expanded = ($later | date to-timezone utc | date to-record)
+    let to_expanded = ($earlier | date to-timezone utc | date to-record)
 
-    $current
-}
-
-def borrow-microsecond [from: record, current: record] {
-    mut current = $current
-    $current.nanosecond = $current.nanosecond + 1_000_000_000
-    $current.microsecond = $current.microsecond - 1
-    if $current.microsecond < 0 {
-        $current = (borrow-millisecond $from $current)
-    }
-
-    $current
-}
-
-# Subtract two datetimes and return a record with the difference
-# Examples
-# print (datetime-diff 2023-05-07T04:08:45+12:00 2019-05-10T09:59:12+12:00)
-# print (datetime-diff (date now) 2019-05-10T09:59:12-07:00)
-export def datetime-diff [from: datetime, to: datetime] {
-    let from_expanded = ($from | date to-timezone utc | date to-record | merge { millisecond: 0, microsecond: 0})
-    let to_expanded = ($to | date to-timezone utc | date to-record | merge { millisecond: 0, microsecond: 0})
-
-    mut result = { year: ($from_expanded.year - $to_expanded.year), month: ($from_expanded.month - $to_expanded.month)}
+    mut result = { year: ($from_expanded.year - $to_expanded.year), month: ($from_expanded.month - $to_expanded.month), day:0, hour:0, minute:0, second:0, millisecond:0, microsecond:0, nanosecond:0}
 
     if $result.month < 0 {
         $result = (borrow-year $from_expanded $result)
@@ -156,65 +152,69 @@ export def datetime-diff [from: datetime, to: datetime] {
     $result
 }
 
-export def pretty-print-duration [dur: duration] {
+# Convert record from datetime-diff into humanized string
+# Example:
+# > dt pretty-print-duration (dt datetime-diff 2023-05-07T04:08:45+12:00 2019-05-10T09:59:12+12:00)
+# 3yrs 11months 27days 18hrs 9mins 33secs
+export def pretty-print-duration [dur: record] {
     mut result = ""
-    if $dur.year > 0 {
+    if $dur.year != 0 {
         if $dur.year > 1 {
             $result = $"($dur.year)yrs "
         } else {
             $result = $"($dur.year)yr "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.month > 0 {
+    if $dur.month != 0 {
         if $dur.month > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.month)months "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.month)month "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.day > 0 {
+    if $dur.day != 0 {
         if $dur.day > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.day)days "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.day)day "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.hour > 0 {
+    if $dur.hour != 0 {
         if $dur.hour > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.hour)hrs "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.hour)hr "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.minute > 0 {
+    if $dur.minute != 0 {
         if $dur.minute > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.minute)mins "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.minute)min "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.second > 0 {
+    if $dur.second != 0 {
         if $dur.second > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.second)secs "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.second)sec "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.millisecond > 0 {
+    if $dur.millisecond != 0 {
         if $dur.millisecond > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.millisecond)ms "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.millisecond)ms "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.microsecond > 0 {
+    if $dur.microsecond != 0 {
         if $dur.microsecond > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.microsecond)µs "
         } else {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.microsecond)µs "
         }
     }
-    if $dur.nanosecond > 0 {
+    if $dur.nanosecond != 0 {
         if $dur.nanosecond > 1 {
             $result = $"($result)($dur.nanosecond)ns "
         } else {
diff --git a/crates/nu-std/tests/test_dt.nu b/crates/nu-std/tests/test_dt.nu
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..72f608248c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/nu-std/tests/test_dt.nu
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+use std assert
+use std dt *
+
+#[test]
+def equal_times [] {
+    let t1 = (date now)
+    assert equal (datetime-diff $t1 $t1) ({year:0, month:0, day:0, hour:0, minute:0, second:0, millisecond:0, microsecond:0 nanosecond:0})
+}
+
+#[test]
+def one_ns_later [] {
+    let t1 = (date now)
+    assert equal (datetime-diff ($t1 + 1ns) $t1) ({year:0, month:0, day:0, hour:0, minute:0, second:0, millisecond:0, microsecond:0 nanosecond:1})
+}
+
+#[test]
+def one_yr_later [] {
+    let t1 = ('2022-10-1T0:1:2z' | into datetime)   # a date for which one year later is 365 days, since duration doesn't support year or month
+    assert equal (datetime-diff ($t1 + 365day) $t1) ({year:1, month:0, day:0, hour:0, minute:0, second:0, millisecond:0, microsecond:0 nanosecond:0})
+}
+
+#[test]
+def carry_ripples [] {
+    let t1 = ('2023-10-9T0:0:0z' | into datetime)
+    let t2 = ('2022-10-9T0:0:0.000000001z' | into datetime)
+    assert equal (datetime-diff $t1 $t2) ({year:0, month:11, day:30, hour:23, minute:59, second:59, millisecond:999, microsecond:999 nanosecond:999})
+}
+
+#[test]
+def earlier_arg_must_be_less_or_equal_later [] {
+    let t1 = ('2022-10-9T0:0:0.000000001z' | into datetime)
+    let t2 = ('2023-10-9T0:0:0z' | into datetime)
+    assert error {|| (datetime-diff $t1 $t2)} 
+}
+
+#[test]
+def pp_skips_zeros [] {
+    assert equal (pretty-print-duration {year:1, month:0, day:0, hour:0, minute:0, second:0, millisecond:0, microsecond:0 nanosecond:0}) "1yr "
+}
+
+#[test]
+def pp_doesnt_skip_neg [] { # datetime-diff can't return negative units, but prettyprint shouldn't skip them (if passed handcrafted record)
+    assert equal (pretty-print-duration {year:-1, month:0, day:0, hour:0, minute:0, second:0, millisecond:0, microsecond:0 nanosecond:0}) "-1yr "
+}
\ No newline at end of file