Why do Americans write their dates down backwards?

tkioz

Fussy Fiddler
May 7, 2009
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Contun said:
04/06/10
April Sixth, 2010

We write it eactly how you would say it. It makes perfect sense to me...
err from that date you posted I'd say the 4th of June, 2010. It can get to be a real problem when you see trailers for movies/games/etc that list 10.06.11 for example, you have to think "okay what date system are they using?" and it's even worst if they say "Fall" or "Winter" and you blink and go "okay so... American Winter is our Summer... but when the hell is Fall?"

In the internet age everyone needs to get on the same page damnit.
 

Broady Brio

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Jun 28, 2009
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Because they are FOOLS!!

OT: I seriously don't know. It's just a different type of organization, should it matter?
 

oppp7

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Aug 29, 2009
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Why is this such a huge deal with everyone? So we put the month before the day. Who cares?
 

Ironic Pirate

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May 21, 2009
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Little known facts, we also breath underwater and fly our planes upside down.

I do think inches/feet are better for folk's height.
 

DazBurger

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May 22, 2009
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Suilenroc said:
we Americans drive on the correct side of the road (we invented the car so we get to make the rules) :D
Well.. Erhm... That last part isent true :/
The first model for the automobile was build by Ferdinand Verbiest from Belgium, for the chinese emporer and the first working car was later build by the british Richard Trevithick.
 

Aurgelmir

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Nov 11, 2009
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Julianking93 said:
Americans do a lot of shit backwards for no apparent reason.

Seriously, why are we the only country that drives on the right side of the road, write dates month, day, year and don't use the metric system?
Um, I am not sure if you mean it as a joke, of if you are blindly ignorant, but America is not the only country in the world that drive on the right side of the road. In fact most of the world does that :) The countries I can think of at the top of my head that doesn't are: Britain, Ireland, Japan, India and Australia, There are probably more, but still I can't name all the countries that do :)

As for the date thing, I think most of Europe does it DD.MM.YYYY and it makes more sense to me, you start with the lowest and move to the highest value. Although on my drivers license its my birth date is written YYYY.MM.DD, which also makes sense moving from highest to lowest. So if an american writes only the day and month it makes sense to do it MM.DD, but not once the year is put in there (in my opinion)

as of the Metric system. The reason you guys don't use that is actually due to the cost of changing from the imperial system. Just consider all the street signs that had to be changed, and the whole re-learning that needs to be done in order for it to work.

PS: I am Norwegian, and drive on the right side of the street while writing my dates as DD.MM.YYYY and doing my calculations using SI-units :)
 

nick n stuff

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Nov 19, 2009
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less moths than days. simple really, they count up to 12 first as a warm up for counting to 31. practice makes perfect. or it could just be cultural, i dunno.
 

crudus

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Oct 20, 2008
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Julianking93 said:
Americans do a lot of shit backwards for no apparent reason.

Seriously, why are we the only country that drives on the right side of the road, write dates month, day, year and don't use the metric system?
go back to your non-American country you conformist! ;)

ot: we are too cool to do what all the other countries are doing like metric system, driving on the left side of the road, and minding our own damn business.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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sravankb said:
Convention. It's stupid of either side thinking they're right.
I'd disagree; the DD/MM/YYYY set up follows logic.

Suilenroc said:
(we invented the car so we get to make the rules) :D
I hate to break it to you, but you didn't.
 

Ryokai

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Apr 4, 2010
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We're not backwards, YOU'RE backwards.

Yeah, take that. Feel the wrath of my powerful argument.
 

Contun

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Mar 28, 2009
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tkioz said:
Contun said:
04/06/10
April Sixth, 2010

We write it eactly how you would say it. It makes perfect sense to me...
err from that date you posted I'd say the 4th of June, 2010. It can get to be a real problem when you see trailers for movies/games/etc that list 10.06.11 for example, you have to think "okay what date system are they using?" and it's even worst if they say "Fall" or "Winter" and you blink and go "okay so... American Winter is our Summer... but when the hell is Fall?"

In the internet age everyone needs to get on the same page damnit.
Another Americanism. Or British-ism? Yeah, we understand. You say the Fourth of June. I say April Sixth. It's just more natural to us. Though I do agree, we need to find a common way to deal with these dates.

....

What's that? You're willing to pick up our system so Contun won't have to be bothered learning yours? Fantastic! :p
 

Jroo wuz heer

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Apr 1, 2010
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Im american but when my fourth grade teacher taught us how to write dates with slashes I gotall confused (shouldnt it go day/month/year{least->greatest})
 

Omega Hunter 9

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Feb 25, 2009
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Because our spoken language is April Sixth Twenty Ten, so we the numbers follow the saying. Some odd dialect from a century or two seperate from europe
 

Elburzito

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Feb 18, 2009
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Furburt said:
On topic, I think that the main reason America has these differences is that directly after the American War Of Independence they wanted to differentiate themselves from Britain, so they adopted many changes of the British way of doing things. They thought it would make America come into itself more as a nation.
Yeah, Thats probably it.
 

the_maestro_sartori

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Nov 8, 2009
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grimsprice said:
We'll harass the rest of the world with ounces! Gallons! Pints! Which most Americans don't know how to measure!
you can say that again. Everytime I'm in the US and get a pint of beer it's like, just over a HALF a UK version of a pint.
First time I was over there I was at a bar in Hoboken, Jersey, and had an argument with the bartender cause I'd ordered a "pint" and he was begging and pleading me to believe they didnt have bigger glasses.

UK booze ftw.

anyway, OT- as it's been said, when the Independance was declared they just changed it around like alot of things, to be different. Though driving on the right kinda makes us in the UK look dumb cause everyone does it now save for us :p
 

Slycne

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Feb 19, 2006
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Because Day/Month/Year can't celebrate Pi Day, and we Americans love pie.
 

fesc

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Feb 14, 2010
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Julianking93 said:
Seriously, why are we the only country that drives on the right side of the road,
Hey hey, only the Brits, their colonies and Asia drives on the left side.
 

CJ1145

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Jan 6, 2009
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aps1984 said:
I was just wondering because Americans always say the UK is stupid for spelling things like 'colour' in that way. I actually agree because there is no need for the 'u'. but then I was like wtf hypocrisy! they put the dates in the most stupid order: month,day,year! I honestly don't know how you can even look yourselves in the mirror ;)
Because 11/9 would be stupid.