Why do Americans write their dates down backwards?

[Assassin Xaero]

Same reason we don't add random ass u's into words? Like color. Or how we use commas instead of periods in currency (2,000.00). And, as I just did, say period instead of full stop to refer to the thing at the end of a sentence. Really, to me full stop just sounds stupid.

Anyway, dates... It makes more sense to me as MM/DD/YYYY, but then again, I grew up with it that way. Logically, I think YYYY/MM/DD would be the best date system to use for organizing things.

 

[Grayjack]

Because we're different. We wanna stand out from other countries. Or so I believe.

 

[UberNoodle]

It's the whole idealism thing, isn't it? Like straight roads to make building simpler. They write dates to make reading them simpler.

Someone once told me that American as a language is English simplified so the Americans don't have to think as hard.

I can often agree with that (though not the reason, don't worry - I'm not calling you all thick!) but just to play devil's advocate I threw in a counter-argument;

car - automobile
lift - elevator
flat - apartment

I agree that metric is more efficient and logical and that is why the military use it. I believe that in the UK and Commonwealth countries, Metric and Imperial still co-exist in some contexts. Interestingly though, a 'click' has much less to do with the metric system and more to do with idiom. With the meter on a car that measures distance, each major increment is a 'click'. That means that were the idiom to be adopted, it could refer to any uniform measurement. 3 clicks could easily be used to mean 3 miles.

Here in the UK we use a horrible mix of the two. But actually, if you think about it, imperial measurements make a whole lot more sense. For example: A metric measurement of 10 can be divided by 1, 2, 5 and 10. An imperial measurement of 12 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. This makes it a lot more flexible for marketing, measuring and the like.

And kinda why it was invented in the first place..

Hmm .. I don't think that the Metric and Imperial thing is as simple as that. Metric also provides for more straight forward comparison and standardisation between different units. It is a much more logical and standardised system. I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

As for 'lift vs elevator', I think that either are fine, though semantically, since 'lifts' pull, I consider that to be more appropriately described by the verb 'lift' than the verb 'elevate', which would seem to imply a force from beneath. 'Flat' however, has a story but I forget it now. 'Car' and 'automobile' are both logical, and that latter is a combination of 'automatic' and 'mobile'. 'Car' however is a much older word which has clearly been appropriated and adapted to suit new technology.

As with all languages, etymology is a very imteresting area of study, and it really shows how hard it is to pinpoint a single moment of 'truth' in any language. I find it all endlessly interesting and as a teacher of English, I no longer really feel that any variation of English is better than the other (I am not saying that YOU do, though). They all make sense in context.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Imperial and Metric systems, Man was foolish in making two.

 

[PunkyMcGee]

us yanks don't call it "imperial". no in our own arrogant way we call it "standard". i just think its funny

 

[v3n0mat3]

It's petty to judge a country based upon how the people write, read, drive, what system of mathematics they choose to use (though all countries use both), etc. Really, it doesn't matter. I choose to write it as "5.Apr.2010", because of the MLA format, as English class was srs bidness to me. I don't really gripe on the use of extra consonants and vowels, it's a preference those people choose to use. That and (I have noticed that) UK English standards are based upon a more French (i.e. 'Colour' as opposed to 'color') way of spelling.

 

[UberNoodle]

Same reason we don't add random ass u's into words? Like color. Or how we use commas instead of periods in currency (2,000.00). And, as I just did, say period instead of full stop to refer to the thing at the end of a sentence. Really, to me full stop just sounds stupid.

Anyway, dates... It makes more sense to me as MM/DD/YYYY, but then again, I grew up with it that way. Logically, I think YYYY/MM/DD would be the best date system to use for organizing things.

Well those 'random' Us reflect the history of the word. English has never been still and has always been in a state of flux, buffetted between external influences and churned by its own internal ones. At different times, English was dominated by different aesthetics, ideals and cultural viewpoints. Those Us are easy to spot, but you can see examples all through the language where imported words create inconsistancies. So those Us aren't 'random'. They make sense historically and there is a school of thought to go and remove them. However, this is no different in validity than the school of thought that sought to add them in the first place. Once day, I am sure, dictionaries will list 'l8' as an alternate spelling of 'late'.
Other than that, I appreciate any efforts to streamline a language, however, a language has both fuctional and traditional sides to it. Oh and, I agree wholeheartedly on the Y/M/D system. otherwise I wouldn't be able to find things on my PC easily.

 

[Kragg]

ah the escapist, by page 4 everyone is just repeating themselves/others

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I actually prefer the UK spelling of Colour over Color and Doughtnut over Donut. It just makes more sense to me.

I would suppose it is just a diffrence in culture. I'm not really sure why it is such a big deal. Either way is correct, although they would spark some confusion among those who aren't use to it.

 

[Composer]

unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful

 

[Treblaine]

Here in the UK we use a horrible mix of the two. But actually, if you think about it, imperial measurements make a whole lot more sense. For example: A metric measurement of 10 can be divided by 1, 2, 5 and 10. An imperial measurement of 12 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. This makes it a lot more flexible for marketing, measuring and the like.

And kinda why it was invented in the first place..

But division is useless when all division nowadays is done electronically with use of decimal points. People no longer take weights of goods and divide them around, they measure out precise amounts and the good thing about a decimal scale is that it is continuous.

Moving from 1-3/8 to 1-1/4 1-5/8 is just awkward and increases the probability of error or confusion.

Another benefit is 1.7 kilograms is instantly recognisable as 1 kilogram and 700 grams.

I mean it would be fine if by standard they stuck with all pound measurements going 1-1/16 to 1-2/16 to 1-3/16 and so on only they don't, you have to remember which kind of multiplication to figure out how many more ounces there are on top of the pound when you are given weight like that.

Adding them together is a nightmare

How do you easily add 2-3/4 and 5-1/16?!??!

Adding even complex quantities like 4.78 and 7.69 together is easy:

4.78
7.69
=12.47

And that is literally all the working you need.

And pounds-ounces only let you divide by 4 useful numbers 2, 4, 8 and 16 compared to 2, 5 and 10. That's only one extra "easy division" but the divide-by-10 is SO incredibly useful because our counting system is base 10, it just simplifies things so much as all you have to do is move the decimal place. Easy.

Often if I have a problem in imperial I will convert it to metric, do the working, then convert back to imperial.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Because we wanted to be different from England after we declared our independence from them. But really i don't know why just because?

 

[ethaninja]

Its a world wide opinion really. Granted, DD/MM/YYYY sounds better because when someone asks you the date, you usualy say for eg: 21st of the 3rd 1982. So I like consistancy... sue me

 

[TheTurtleMan]

Because we are better than everyone else. It really isn't that complicated. But seriously,why does it matter? It's like asking why some countries drive on different sides of the road.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

It's because of the way we say dates when we speak. When Americans say the date, we say "April fifth, twenty-ten." Rather than "The fifth of April, twenty-ten." It's a small thing, but it makes a big difference... Not really.

 

[Ph0t0n1c Ph34r]

Out of spite.

 

[Aurora219]

Here in the UK we use a horrible mix of the two. But actually, if you think about it, imperial measurements make a whole lot more sense. For example: A metric measurement of 10 can be divided by 1, 2, 5 and 10. An imperial measurement of 12 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. This makes it a lot more flexible for marketing, measuring and the like.

And kinda why it was invented in the first place..

But division is useless when all division nowadays is done electronically with use of decimal points. People no longer take weights of goods and divide them around, they measure out precise amounts and the good thing about a decimal scale is that it is continuous.

Moving from 1-3/8 to 1-1/4 1-5/8 is just awkward and increases the probability of error or confusion.

Another benefit is 1.7 kilograms is instantly recognisable as 1 kilogram and 700 grams.

I mean it would be fine if by standard they stuck with all pound measurements going 1-1/16 to 1-2/16 to 1-3/16 and so on only they don't, you have to remember which kind of multiplication to figure out how many more ounces there are on top of the pound when you are given weight like that.

Adding them together is a nightmare

How do you easily add 2-3/4 and 5-1/16?!??!

Adding even complex quantities like 4.78 and 7.69 together is easy:

4.78
7.69
=12.47

And that is literally all the working you need.

And pounds-ounces only let you divide by 4 useful numbers 2, 4, 8 and 16 compared to 2, 5 and 10. That's only one extra "easy division" but the divide-by-10 is SO incredibly useful because our counting system is base 10, it just simplifies things so much as all you have to do is move the decimal place. Easy.

Often if I have a problem in imperial I will convert it to metric, do the working, then convert back to imperial.

Point. I forgot the fact that we use ye olde 0-9 scale for counting, which is somewhat metricky. But regardless, my original point was meant to be that imperial measurements work better for some things than metric does.

Wow, I sound so unintelligent right now. But anyway, yes, thanks for your insight.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

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?

Is this^ a trick question?

Because we're awesome! And anyone who says diffrent can go to hell and/or suck hot lead.

I mean look at it this way, we are the only country where you can turn right on red... I'll repeat that for all you people who drive on the left side of the road.

We... can... turn... right... on... red.

You can't tell me that that^ shit ain't awesome.

Also we can feel superior to english types when they ask us what the hell a foot/inch/yard/mile is.

 

[zehydra]

We write it 4/5/10 (April 5th 2010), because that's how we say it: April (4) 5th (5), 2010 (10). The way Europeans write it is 5/4/10, because it's put in an ascending order, or is thought of as "the fifth of april", as opposed to "april 5th".

 

[Frungy]

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?[/quot

Being an American, which makes me an expert on the subject, the reason I can give is that it is just another way that we are different from our cousins across the pond. It's just how we do things, which is also the reason why we don't use the metric system and why we drive on a different side of the road than our former colonizers.

I think Fox242 has hit the nail on the head. American was born in rebellion and has never quite got over the tendency to rebel against things without really thinking them the whole way through. Celcius, dates, driving standards, the outmoded reference to unit of currency by "nicknames" (e.g. dime, quarter, etc) instead of referring to them by their unit of value (5 cents(?), 25 cents, etc), imperial (quarts, gallons, yards, miles) rather metric measurements, etc. There are a long list of examples.

In the end Americans are just making things difficult for themselves. American tourists have huge problems understanding how hot (or cold) it's going to be, how far something is, or even how big that beer they're holding really is. American business is likewise hampered.

They should just change to metric like everyone else, hell even the British managed it!