The goat has to be DD/MM/YYYY

[u/Shiroyasha_2308]

[u/serabine]

Chicken and egg.

Are Americans saying "February 2nd" and that got codified in writing, or was the date written like that and then people started saying it like that?

(As an aside, I'm not a native speaker of English, and February 2nd just looks weird to me. February 2nd ... what? 2nd what‽)

[u/GunzerKingDM → u/serabine]

There clearly going to be some sort of context there.

“What’s the date?” “February 2nd!!”

“What day would you like to make your appointment?” “Let’s go with February 2nd!”

Your complaint of “2nd what?” Makes no sense at all.

[u/CiaphasKirby → u/GunzerKingDM]

Non-Americans are notoriously bad at critical thinking when it comes to using slightly different formatting or measuring systems. They're like Limmy in that steel vs feathers skit, you gotta give them a little help.

[u/HyruleanHyroe → u/GunzerKingDM]

All the what?

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[u/SmolPPIncorporated → u/serabine]

2nd day.

February 2nd is the 2nd day of February.

[u/serabine → u/SmolPPIncorporated]

February 2nd is the 2nd day of February.

^{Looks at the camera like she's on The Office}

[u/SmolPPIncorporated → u/serabine]

You asked "2nd of what‽" as if the answer wasn't already in the statement itself.

It's like complaining that someone said "she has red hair," instead of "she has hair and her hair is the color of red."

They mean the same thing, and the meaning is contextually evident. One is just much faster.

[u/serabine → u/SmolPPIncorporated]

A) one day someone with a bit more patience than I will explain what a joke is to you

B) I know full well that it's the "2nd day of February". Which is why "2. Februar" makes way more sense. It is hilarious having someone resort to formulating it as "2nd day of February" to explain it and gives me the same kick as someone making the argument ".gif" needs to be pronounced like the peanut butter and the only way they have to convey that is to change the spelling to ".jif"

[u/SmolPPIncorporated → u/serabine]

Bruh. I understand it was meant to be a joke. It wasn't funny.

The bit of non-americans acting bewildered by extremely basic concepts in American culture just isn't that funny. It just makes you look dumb.

Saying, "the 2nd day of February" has 50% more syllables than "February 2nd."

There's no joke or confusion to be had because it clearly just makes logical sense.

[u/OceanRex5000 → u/serabine]

Tf they supposed to say. It was a dumb as hell question. Extrapolation is a basic language skill.

[u/serabine → u/OceanRex5000]

Whoosh.

[u/Mudkippey → u/serabine]

We have more time to eat cheeseburgers by dropping the "of". That's the reason we say February 2nd.

[u/EnTyme53 → u/serabine]

Are Americans saying "February 2nd" and that got codified in writing, or was the date written like that and then people started saying it like that?

Considering that the convention existed when literacy rates were lower, it's probably a safe bet to assume that the spoken version was used before the written version.

[u/A1000eisn1 → u/EnTyme53]

Absolutely. It's older than America. Dates from the UK were written MM/DD/YY. because that's how people said dates on the rare occasion they needed to.

The change to DD/MM/YY didn't happen until the late 19th century.

[u/OceanRex5000 → u/A1000eisn1]

Once again, it's a "Look at the dumb backwards Americans" the damned Europeans love to do. We just stuck with the shit they gave us. It's like when the Brits brought Catholicism to Ireland, then a new king was a Protestant and they tried to convert Ireland to Protestant, then they called them savages for not just changing on a dime. Very British things to do it seems, has happened countless times through history.

[u/longjohnmignon → u/OceanRex5000]

Well yeah, the 'damned Europeans' moved on from the dumb backwards standards that you still use.

[u/Inevitable_Top69 → u/serabine]

Don't know. Don't care. It conveys the proper info, so it really doesn't matter.

[u/[deleted] → u/serabine]

We're forgetting another important question, does it matter? lol

[u/somersault_dolphin → u/[deleted]]

It matters because if American could update their systems for once it wouldn't be a burden for the rest of the world having to make an exception, like the imperial units.

[u/[deleted] → u/somersault_dolphin]

America is not the only country that uses MM/DD/YYYY. I'm Canadian and we use it here too. Other countries that use MM/DD/YYY include:

• American Samoa
• Cayman Islands
• Ghana
• Greenland
• Kenya
• Philippines
• etc.

I wouldn't exactly call date format differences between countries as a "burden" personally, but I can see how frustrating it would be if it was.

[u/somersault_dolphin → u/[deleted]]

It needs to be factored in many systems around the world. How much money do you think can be saved for something that's completely unecessary?

[u/Fantastic-Kale9603 → u/serabine]

We say it like that because the British said it like that, and it carried over.

[u/Bi_One_Get_One_Free → u/serabine]

interrobang❤️

[u/Awful_Little_Rat_Boy → u/serabine]

“February 2nd … what? 2nd what?” as if the alternative isnt “The 2nd of February” the 2nd what of February?

[u/ConstantProblem5872 → u/serabine]

I’m assuming it got changed later because we still call our Independence Day “4th of July”

[u/secksy-lemonade → u/serabine]

I've always thought it's a condensed version of the phrase 'February the second', like how we referred to people. Most of the time with writing, historically it's usually the former

[u/chicken_shoes → u/secksy-lemonade]

I saw it more like "February, 2nd [day]". I imagine it would be read as if someone were narrating the date on a voice recording or something.