Why do Americans want to know the month first and the day second?
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There are plenty of other scenarios with a similar pattern of starting at the larger scale and then the specific.
TV shows: Season 2 Episode 9
Theatre: Act one, scene 3
Biblical: Book of John 3:16
Other books: Chapter 9, page 125.
Address: 123 Main St, Apt #2
Phone numbers: country code (area code) locality-individual
I'm not saying either is right or wrong, but there are precedents for either way.
Perhaps the most relevant of all: time of day. 9:30. Hours first, then minutes. I'm not from a location that does month-day ordering, but I think largest to smallest works excellently for time measurement, hence ISO 8601.
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Not for me, e.g. "remember, remember the fifth of November" is how we remember the date of Guy Fawkes Night in the UK. "Fourth of July", "14th of February", "First of April", etc.
I guess you mean in the States, but perhaps they say it that way because they write their dates M-D-Y.
So, by the time someone in the UK has finished saying the day and "of," an American has said the month and day.
The US is finally more efficient!
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The QWERTY keyboard was designed to speed typing up, not slow it down
sauce?
some studies on keyboard layout have suggested that, for a skilled typist, layout is largely irrelevant – even randomized and alphabetical keyboards allow for similar typing speeds to QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards – and that switching costs always outweigh the benefits of further training with a keyboard layout a person has already learned
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I'm sure the history is that, for most daily purposes, it was useful to know both. Knowing the larger element (the month) first sets the context for the smaller detail. For instance, saying I met someone for dinner on December 12 gives you the broader context (e.g. the season, possible relevant events) before the smaller detail of the day.
I think of it as, if you got shot halfway through telling me the date of something, "December" on its own is more useful information than "12". Technically, "12" narrows it down to fewer possible dates, but it could be at any time of year, while December only happens once a year, in March or whatever.
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I'm sure the history is that, for most daily purposes, it was useful to know both. Knowing the larger element (the month) first sets the context for the smaller detail. For instance, saying I met someone for dinner on December 12 gives you the broader context (e.g. the season, possible relevant events) before the smaller detail of the day.
I does make more sense if you put it that way.
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I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
Because the month tells me more about how far in the future something is. If I have an appointment on the 12th of July, there's not much information in knowing it's on the 12th. 12th of what? But it's in July, so between 1 and 2 months in the future. If I need more info, then I'll pay attention to the day. So in order of information given.
Historical dates are similar, except I really just need (roughly) the year, and then a month if that's relevant. Knowing the exact date of a historical event is just showing off. But if you know the month, you know what season it was, what the weather was probably like. Was it planting/growing/harvest time? You can guess at a lot of things with just the month.
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I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
I don't think there's any real logic behind it other than the founders of our nation post the war of independence did not want to have any real similarities between America and Britain.
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I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
It would make sense if they were going YYYY/MM/DD. But they literally do MM/DD/YYYY
WTF
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Ooh ooh I know whe calander one. 2 or 3 roman empowers were so up their own arse they added there names to the calander. Augustus being the only one I remember off the top of my head. In order to make them fit they shortened other months.
Isn't this also why September is not the 7th month, and October is not the 8th month?
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It would make sense if they were going YYYY/MM/DD. But they literally do MM/DD/YYYY
WTF
What gets me with this date format, is I'm just a random person on the internet and I could be anywhere and I tell you the date is 03/04/2025.
DD/MM/YYYY format exists too, so is it April third or is it March fourth?
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It would make sense if they were going YYYY/MM/DD. But they literally do MM/DD/YYYY
WTF
What's your birthday? When saying it, do you start with the year?
I am pro-ISO 8601 but I see how MMDDYYYY could be tempting to Murca
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What's your birthday? When saying it, do you start with the year?
I am pro-ISO 8601 but I see how MMDDYYYY could be tempting to Murca
The Chinese do.
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Perhaps the most relevant of all: time of day. 9:30. Hours first, then minutes. I'm not from a location that does month-day ordering, but I think largest to smallest works excellently for time measurement, hence ISO 8601.
I'm surprised I didn't even think of that. It's so obvious!
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sauce?
some studies on keyboard layout have suggested that, for a skilled typist, layout is largely irrelevant – even randomized and alphabetical keyboards allow for similar typing speeds to QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards – and that switching costs always outweigh the benefits of further training with a keyboard layout a person has already learned
Here's just one, and there are many. What you cited above doesn't contradict what I said either...my point is it wasn't created to intentionally slow typing down
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Because the month tells me more about how far in the future something is. If I have an appointment on the 12th of July, there's not much information in knowing it's on the 12th. 12th of what? But it's in July, so between 1 and 2 months in the future. If I need more info, then I'll pay attention to the day. So in order of information given.
Historical dates are similar, except I really just need (roughly) the year, and then a month if that's relevant. Knowing the exact date of a historical event is just showing off. But if you know the month, you know what season it was, what the weather was probably like. Was it planting/growing/harvest time? You can guess at a lot of things with just the month.
Perhaps because where I live there are no seasons in the same way as in the United States, knowing the month doesn't matter to us unless we work in the fields, here there are only months of sun and months of rain.
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Isn't this also why September is not the 7th month, and October is not the 8th month?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Yeh. They stuffed em in random places each time I'm sure it made sense at the time
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Why do you use 60 seconds in a minute and not an even 100? Why use randomly sized calendar months?
Because 60 evenly divides into halves, thirds, fifths, sixths, etc, and because it's impossible to divide 365.2425 days into 12 months of equal length.
I'm a fan of 12 months of 30 with a 5 day new years in between
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I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
Why do you care? There are so many other cultural differences to highlight, history and music and art that only exist overseas, hundreds of millions of people with the same dreams and ambitions you have. Why on earth would you focus on something so trivial?
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I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
Many computer systems store dates starting with the year. Isn't that interesting?
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I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Linguistics
In UK English, it's considered proper to write "the 6th of March" as "6 March" and sometimes read as "6th March" which can be jarring to Americans as their shorthand is "March 6th" and when "6(th) March" is encountered in written form, it's expanded to the full "6th of March" when spoken
That doesn't mean this won't be yet another feature American English absorbs from UK English but right now flipping them in speech requires a few extra syllables and people are lazy
