(other than posting too early for Americans to get the joke)
The American system is kind of weird in some ways, but on the other hand it’s just writing it the way we say it out loud. December 12, 2023.
Do Europeans say it out loud the other way since you write it that way? 12 of December, 2023 for example.
Edit: It does sound like basically everyone writes it the way they say it out loud. Language is an interesting thing! Thanks for the insights everyone.
In German we also say it in the order as we write it.
12.12.2023 Zwölfter Dezember 2023 Zwölf = twelve ter = th
In the UK most folks would say it “12th of December”, prioritising the day of the month over the month…
Which begs the question, why prioritise saying the month first?
The day is going to have much more of an affect on the average person’s day to day life than what month it is, so it feels natural to prioritise stating the day first.I don’t think it’s that deep, it’s just how we say it over here. People do sometimes say it the other way, too, it’s just less common. If someone is just talking about a date in the same month we’re currently in we usually just say the number without the month (the 12th). It’s interesting to hear it really does seem to mimic the way people say it out loud in every case so far in these replies!
We say 12th December. Sooo yeah…
Yep, in Dutch we’d say “het is 12 December 2023”. When talking about dates I also say “it’s the 12th of December 2023” in English, but that’s probably a bit weird for English speakers.
I don’t think it’s weird, it just sounds a little more formal.
As an American (California native, living in the Midwest for the last decade), it’s not that weird. I hear people using “December 12th” and “12th of December” with about equal frequency. Written, though, “December 12th” is more common, and if you’re just using the numbers, everyone will assume the month is first.
It’s not weird, it’s correct
Forget about ISO 8601 and customary standards, let’s use SI units. Approximately 63 838 093.83 kiloseconds have passed since the beginning of the so-called “common era” in Greenwich.
is that fast SI seconds or slow SI seconds? (alt text)
Basically used averages:
2022 × 31 556 952 + 11 × 2 629 746 + 11 × 86 400 + [Hours] × 3 600 + [Minutes] × 60
I don’t remember the time it was when I did this lol. Basically, current date minus one and the time as is, times the average seconds for each. I just used 0001 as the “beginning of the common era” just to simplify things lol.
Edit: I used 0001 as the “beginning of the common era.”
I still use imperial and other US standards because I was born here and have never lived anywhere else 😎
Please consider using civilised units as well
