We write it how you’d say it. Outside of holidays or days of remembrance we write it how you say it.
For example today is 4/13/25. April 13th 2025. If you say the 13th of April you’re fuckin weird.
A funny thing about Americans and calendar dates
Submitted 11 months ago by Mickey7@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e0fe6ec7-7167-4830-8321-dd4f9ac3cb3d.jpeg
Comments
ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Lemmy_2019@lemmy.one 11 months ago
That’s how YOU say it. Personally, I would say the 10th of March, the 2nd of June. But then, I’m not American.
cepelinas@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
And which do you ask more often what month is it or what day is it?
ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I don’t understand how that’s relevant?
SirBucksworth@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What do you think of DD/HH/YYYY/Min/MM/Sec?
Flipper@feddit.org 11 months ago
Could be improved by swapping hours and minutes. They are more important after all.
Also that way the time isn’t in order anymore.
Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
People mentioning ISOs are such forks and it’s adorable
Bloomcole@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Don’t mock them.
One day you will meet one in person and he’ll beat you up if he’s 7 foot, 3/5 thumbs and 2 elbows tall.easily3667@lemmus.org 11 months ago
Foot is an SI derived unit, not familiar with the thumbs. And elbows don’t get used as measurement, elbows go up.
letsgo@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Don’t you mean Eramicans?
Harvey656@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’m an American and do day/month/year.
I thought this was how it was done everywhere?
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Where in the US? I’ve never seen anything online where a US entity uses DD/MM/YYYY, or do you mean the month is spelled out?
StJohnMcCrae@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
So the holiday that’s coming up in a week… Is it 4/20, or 20/4?
NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Canada’s just like you have to guess
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Why can’t we just call it Independence Day, that’s what it’s actually called
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Sorry, that’s copyrighted.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 months ago
Why is the format not:
2025/4/12
Biggest time frame to smallest time frame (year, month, then day)?
easily3667@lemmus.org 11 months ago
Because humans are not computers. That scheme makes sense when you are filling out things that are not nearby in time. For example, filling in your birth date on tax forms.
Otherwise, humans don’t generally need the context of the year. The same is true of the month only if the context is clear (I’ll see you on the 20th implies the very next 20th). A year is much longer and most things are not planned out that far in advance. If they are, they often dont have precise dates in which case a month or even a quarter is more appropriate.
Time is also one of those things where humans are so used to contextual processing that representing the full date adds overhead. 2025/4/20, 4/20/2025, 20/4/2025 all take more processing than “the 20th” or “next Sunday”.
geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
ISO Tanf rise up.
Also 2025/04/12
Oaksey@lemmy.world 11 months ago
For written format that is ideal but when talking about a date, say in two weeks time, saying the year is redundant.
Echo5@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is how I do it- my folders and files are super easy to find
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Canada uses this
epicstove@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
In my computer engineering course this is literally how we were told to write the date on our lab reports.
Amir@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
As a computer scientist, I’ve been doing this everywhere for over 10 years already. Be the change you want to see in the world.
suite403@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I worked for a company that did their dates multiple ways and it was fucking impossible to know what date was what. It was super frustrating. I’d prefer this, but if you don’t, at least keep it consistent once you start.
pyre@lemmy.world 11 months ago
my guess is order of relevance.
sawdustprophet@midwest.social 11 months ago
2025/4/12
Don’t forget leading zeroes, we’re not half assing this!
Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 months ago
02025/04/012
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Issues with unix paths. I prefer YYYY-MM-DD.
ptu@lemm.ee 11 months ago
2009, got it
harsh3466@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
This is the way.
chicagohuman@lemm.ee 11 months ago
ISO8601 FTW!
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 11 months ago
With the way things are going over there, the whole thing falls apart soon enough and this issue can be fixed in the rebuild.
Surp@lemmy.world 11 months ago
None of this dumb shits going to matter when the meteor sephiroth summoned blows the earth up
Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 months ago
Of course it will still matter. You’ll need a calendar just to tune out the animation for that spell it’s so fucking long.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
Both are wrong. The correct way to write the date is YYYY-MM-DD. This is the only way to sort dates linearly in a list. ISO 8601.
easily3667@lemmus.org 11 months ago
I’m so glad you think we are all computers
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
Our lives involve computers to a huge degree.
Osan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
In Arabic we use DD/MM/YYYY but it actually gets written as YYYY/MM/DD since Arabic is written and read from right to left. When the year is dropped the confusing part is not what format is used here but rather does this website/software support RTL or is it just regular unformatted ASCII.
Ziglin@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Should work if you have an RTL invert character before, right? (Not that you could name files with the slashes.)
kameecoding@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Hungarian is close enough
YYYY.MM.DD
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 11 months ago
♥️ this is what I decide to use at work. Dots are superior than dashes in my opinion because they prevent line breaks
tatann@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I can be OK with that
But not with having elected the Trump of EU
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s frustrating that people are so bad at dates that ISO8601 lives rent-free in my head because I constantly have to tell people ;)
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What Americans are calling people idiots for saying <day> of <month>? We say it both ways all the time. 4th of July, July 4th… it’s not a complicated thing.
AA5B@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That is a weird one: every other date is “normal” order but for some reason this is an exception. Also weird that we call it with backward date more often than its actual holiday name
- July 4 is a normal date
- Independency Day is the name of the holiday
- so why do we usually refer to it as “Fourth of July”
ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 11 months ago
We don’t say July 4 because that’s a normal date, we don’t say Independence Day because there are so many of those on different days for different countries.
SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee 11 months ago
It’s like saying USAians don’t have a sense of humour. Some USAians are MAGAt knob heads, some are perfectly reasonable people. More or less like anywhere else.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 11 months ago
We say it thats way for the benefit of the British.
Ideonek@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Very independent.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 11 months ago
I like DD MON YYYY. Feels very grand and unambiguous, but people always look at me funny for using it.
SARGE@startrek.website 11 months ago
I’ve been told I need to redo paperwork because I marked the date like 12APR2025.
I get standardization for computers, but for something a person is going to look at I feel like it’s very direct, needs no explanation or interpretation. Anyone who sees it should be able to figure it out instantly.
Ziglin@lemmy.world 11 months ago
To be fair I read it as 12A PR 2025 (yes I am stupid). It could also be the 12th version of the main PR of 2025. I’m not great with abbreviations and when it comes to months I’m also not used to it. Numbers seem superior to me.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 11 months ago
There is very little room for interpretation even if you don’t know the date format. That’s BS.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Coldest take: if any common date format is difficult for you, you’re a little bit ridiculous
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 11 months ago
MM/DD/YYYY genuinely causes issues, because it’s very easily misread by the rest of the world, and vise versa for Americans.
I have been mislead more than once, because the MM and DD are both ≤ 12.
MM/DD/YYYY needs to die
Month Day YYYY is fine, because it’s unambiguous when the month is spelled out.
YYYY.MM.DD, or similar, is the only way to sort dates properly anyway.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I don’t actually disagree with anything you said, I was just being a bit cheeky
henfredemars@infosec.pub 11 months ago
Happy not allowed! There can only be one correct date format!
RyanLiu@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s all fun and games until someone drops a 7/4 and you don’t know which country they’re from
tuhriel@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
I usually go for if it has a / its probably US date formate…
We use dots in our Locale
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Context clues are enough for me, 4/7 times
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I only deal with people from one country, but I always write out the month so there’s no confusion in important messages. Even including the day of the week as a type of verification.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
November 9 never forget.
MNByChoice@midwest.social 11 months ago
July 4th
Eat_Your_Paisley@lemm.ee 11 months ago
To be fair the holiday is actually Independence Day
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 11 months ago
As someone from a yyyy-mm-dd country, you’re all wrong /hj
easily3667@lemmus.org 11 months ago
Up until the convent thread I’d never heard an American say that at all.
And there’s no proof the shithead in the comments is American. Definitely a troll though.
In any case this is easy to explain since the 4th of July was a holiday made by British citizens.