Why do Americans write the date the wrong way round?

Question

Dates work by a hierarchical system, days make months, months make years, so it makes sense to write the days first, then the month, then the year. Why would anyone write it month first, then day, then year? It's just stupid.

eg. 13th August 2006 should be:

13/08/2006

not

08/13/2006

The USA, Canada, Philippines and some other tiny places are the only ones to use the mm/dd/yy format.

Lol I know it seems stupid and trivial, I'm just wondering. As far as I'm concerned my way is the right way because it makes most sense and is used by most people in most countries.

OMG how can anyone get so offended by a question like this?

Answer 1

I think it depends of lack of education which seems to be quite normal in the States. They might not know in which order years, months, weeks and day come. How about the watch do they have 12 hours watch or 24 hours watch?
By the way, isn't there an International agreement how to write it?
Yes there are, just follow the agreement in the new schoolbooks when they might be reprinted 2010 or 2015.

Answer 2

I was thinking the same about the rest of the world (writing days first) it can get confusing if you have 08/04/06 you don't know if they mean April or August. I don't know why we write the month first but it makes more sense to me to do it that way because, I always want to know the month more then the day. Cheers.

Answer 3

does it matter???

Today is 08/13/2006 which is August 13, 2006 right? So whats the matter? 13/08/2006 is still August 13, 2006.... Why does everyone other then Americans have to sit around on their *** and judge how we do things... It's always "Americans eat fatty foods", Americans put the date wrong, americans drink a lot of sodas, americans have weird hair cuts, americans drive on the wrong side of the roads, americans don't know how to drive, americans this, and that.... WTF is wrong with yall... We over here, like different countries.. I see Italy, France, Britian, China, etc, as great places to visit one day, because of the culture, because it's different, because of the people.... Stop hating, and be reasonable & grow up

Years have Months that have Days...

but each 12 MONTHS made up of ** Days, and the year just stays at the end.....

Answer 4

Yes I agree it is a bit confusing when the world is getting smaller and some types of communications between these two countries (UK n US) may result in confusion!

All said n done, US also uses the archaic 'foot, lb, sec' system while the rest of the world has switched to metric system. The only other country to use that system is Central African Republic, I was told!

I had a tough time trying to convert ounces/ pint/ gallons into litres or trying to say 'schedule' and 'vitamins' the way the Brits (and us Indians) say - now I have given up ;-))

Answer 5

I think they just do it to confuse us!
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If we see 08/06/06 we have no way of knowing if it means the 8th of June, or the 6th of August!

I'm British, and I believe it should be day/month/year too - but I live in Japan, and it's the other way around, year/month/day! Even that is a LOT less confusing than the American way though, and very easy to understand...!

So, if a Japanese label on food says 08/06/06, it means that you've got to eat it before the 6th of June, 2008!

Answer 6

I believe it's only North America that does so (can't say anything about Philippines, never been there)...I started to write it that way to distance themselves from the countries in Europe where they came from. Same things with the calenders...European calenders start the week on Monday...North American calenders start the week on Sunday.

You could pretty much identify it with a child doing things different from their parents...rebellion, plain and simple.

Answer 7

it IS strange and I'm still having difficulty remembering to spell it the American way after I've been here a whole year!! And don't be offended by sensitive yanks, I had the same reaction to my completely innocent question about england/america yesterday. They aren't all like that! You get wankers everywhere unfortunately!

Answer 8

In Japan, we write like this.

2006/08/13

What do you think about that?

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Oops, I've got a comment from an English girl above very soon.lol

Answer 9

We don't say "13 august, 2006"

We actually do say "august 13, 2006".

So we write it that way.

Answer 10

Good question. It is strange. I get annoyed whenever I'm using Microsoft Excel because it automatically does the American date format and I have to always change it.