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The US Tendency to Put the Month Before the Day/Date

posted 2 years ago by HarveyManFredSin (4877)
58 replies | jump to latest

Sorry, but it's really annoying.

The European practice of putting the date/day before the month (i.e. 11 September 2001, or 11/09/2001) makes far more sense (i.e. place the more specific/smaller unit of time, the day, and increasingly get larger, and less specific, as one moves from left to right), and when doing a search on a Microsoft Word program, it's much more helpful if one wants to find out what was happening during a particular month (i.e. I can search 09/2001 or 09/01; I can't do that so easily if the day is between the month and the year).

Can anyone explain to me why the Americans do this?

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 2 years ago

Without Googling it (there must be a reason) I would say that it rolls off the tongue better. If some one asks me when my birthday is, I say "May 26" not "26 May"

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

That's fine for day-to-day/casual speech, but when it comes to writing, particularly official documentation, it's frustrating.

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 2 years ago

I agree that in writing it makes more sense to go from the smaller unit to the higher unit. We will adopt that along with the metric system and soccer :)

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

FOOTBALL *NOT* 'soccer'. 😉

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

Soccer is a British word. In England in the 50s there was a fad for creating words ending in -er. e.g. 'fiver', and I forget what else.

[–] AndyKing1967 (39847) 2 years ago

Wanker!

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

Was on the tip of my tongue.

[–] DMT (4483) 2 years ago

Football is a badass violent sport that actually has watchable clips (still too boring to watch the whole game), Soccer aka Foot Fairies as we call them is a lame boring sport that is only popular because most countries are too poor and broke to afford equipment needed for real sports...

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

So they finally got internet working again in your trailer park, DMT?

[–] DMT (4483) 2 years ago

yeaaaahhhh budddyyy

[–] LoveCatsHateDogs (2001) 2 years ago

LFL is the only acceptable form of that sport.

[–] DMT (4483) 2 years ago

yeah i rather watch that then nfl, sports in general are boring except extreme sports and womans sports where they are wearing tight pants

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

Americans don't give a damn what customs other countries have. Such as not bowing down to the metric system god.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Well, I can't speak for all of Europe, but in the UK, most people I know still tend to use the imperial system, particularly when describing weight, length and height.

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 2 years ago

only if accuracy is a second thought.
Like - "that shops about a hundred yards away"

If you wanna make sure your new fridge will fit in the kitchen you use metric. because thats the size its sold as , and built to.

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 2 years ago

We will never accept a foreign ruler!

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

@HarveyManFredSin, nyctc7, sslssg,

The biggest reason the English don't speak German is because the US speak English. And the biggest reason why the English have become butler to the oil countries is because the US don't use pounds, preferring to coin the term dollar. Kidding... the word is of German origin.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

"The biggest reason the English don't speak German is because the US speak English."

It still took you guys over two years to decide whether to get involved (and there was massive resistance from many quarters as to whether the US should), and that was only cos the Japanese bombed one of your naval bases.

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

Calm down Ringo, I'm not American. My country is like the Monaco of Africa. I'm of Indian origin, and I speak Creole, among other languages. Sorry if I sounded anti-British. But I had to say what I did because the thoughts just popped in my head, and I thought they were good enough to post.

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 2 years ago

Just to be clear about the joke: ruler=📏

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

I tried to come up with a pun about the word 'ruler', but failed to, so I posted something else. If you want to know whether I understood your joke, the answer is yes.

[–] DMT (4483) 2 years ago

US government knew the attack was coming, they took all the most valuable ships (aircraft carriers) out of the harbor right before the attack. They wanted US soldiers to die so the propaganda machine could sell the US citizens on the war without losing vital military technologies necessary for the war effort. Same as 9/11, US gov and Israel needed to convince dumb rednecks to invade and die for their cause so they blow up a couple of buildings. Then with the use of their propaganda machine they convinced these deadly & strong, yet dumbass rednecks to do their bidding...

[–] sslssg (35178) 2 years ago

I'm so surprised that the US didn't jump all over the metric system considering the imperial system came from the British. I mean sure they changed it a little, but still....

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 2 years ago

Americans don't give a damn what customs other countries have. Such as not bowing down to the metric system god.

So you stick with awkwardly formatted dates and LUDICROUS measurement system , just out of stubbornness?

its a rod for your own back!

[–] Luffy (1236) 2 years ago

People in glass houses should not throw...stones.

[–] jriley555 (8544) 2 years ago

Convention, not tendency. It makes more sense in the context of scaling in rather than scaling out. Do you say .75 and 9 meters or 9.75 meters ? Which gives you more perspective earlier - zooming in on a point on a map or zooming out from it ?

The other convention has the virtue of consistency, going from the day to the month to the year. But I like the murican way, goldangit you elitist snobby euro person.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

You're right. 'Convention.'

The correct words weren't coming to me when I typed my OP.

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 2 years ago

But the American way is neither scaling in nor scaling out.
There a 3 units: day , month year.

scaling in : year, month , day
scaling out: day, month, year

America: Month, day, year

ie middle, smallest, biggest

[–] jriley555 (8544) 2 years ago

That's because we figure people usually already know what year it is ;)

[–] parkerbot (10720) 2 years ago

There is only one proper way to indicate the date with numbers.

Year - Month - Day

People who uses other systems are clearly deplorable disorganized chaos mongers.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

I don't mind that system. I think it makes more sense to start with the smallest and most specific date; on the other hand, I suppose in the greater scheme of things, going by *year* is more specific. But I appreciate the consistency. Either go from a smaller unit of time to a bigger one, or vice-versa, but going from month to day and then year is just all over the place.

[–] parkerbot (10720) 2 years ago

If you organize files for instance, on a computer, putting them in order like that, 2023-06-06 and so on will result in them being in order. But hey, we live in a world of chaos, so who cares about being able to find a document quickly in a pile of a thousand others.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Good point.

That *is* the best system for recording dates.

[–] capuchin (3366) 2 years ago

I'm led to believe they persisted with it because it wasn't generally much of an issue until recently. Historically, people used to write the date out in full - and there's no real confusion if you do it that way. 'The 6th of June, 2023' and 'June the 6th, 2023' are obviously the same date.

Why do they persist with it in number form in a digital era? Sheer bloodymindedness, I'd imagine.

[–] capuchin (3366) 2 years ago

Also, it's difficult to change, isn't it? As the UK can attest to with its hodgepodge of metric and imperial. Internationally, US dates may be confusing. But imagine if they were generationally confusing among themselves. That's far worse.

Still, it's no excuse. These people are monsters. MONSTERS I TELL YOU.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Indeed. 👏🏼

[–] Kowalski (79077) 2 years ago

BECAUSE WE ARE AWESOME...INTOXICATED UNICORNS WHO DO SHIT HOWEVER WE SEE FIT.😎

[–] Ticketsplease (4024) 2 years ago

Yes, it is confusing. I've read the date wrong because it was someone from outside of America writing it. Unless the numbers give it away, like 23.11.23 (there's no 23rd month) I will be confused. 01.05.23 could be the first of May or the 5th of January depending on who wrote it and where you are.

I believe this is why some date stamps on products leave no room for confusion. YEAR:MONTH:DAY.

Today would be 2023:06:06.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

I bet there's someone who'd somehow mistake 2023:06:06 to mean twenty-three minutes past eight, and six seconds.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78561) 2 years ago

I’m not joking when I say the Ugly American stereotype has its roots in reality. There is something amusing about irritating and confounding the rest of the world by doing things our way and not giving a damn about foreign opinions.

They can go stuff their opinions!
🦅🇺🇸🤘