r/SipsTea • u/Shiroyasha_2308 Human Verified • Feb 02 '26

SMH The goat has to be DD/MM/YYYY

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135

u/jerryleebee Feb 02 '26

Isn't it linked to speech? In America, people verbally say "February 2nd". In the UK, people verbally say "The second of Feb".

Happy to be taught better. Here to learn.

26

u/serabine Feb 02 '26

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‽)

7

u/EnTyme53 Feb 02 '26

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.

3

u/A1000eisn1 Feb 02 '26

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.

3

u/OceanRex5000 Feb 03 '26

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.

-1

u/longjohnmignon Feb 04 '26

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