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5 June 2025

Stuff Americans say
Date/time

Stuff Americans say
Cartoon illustration reading '4th of July' in red, white and blue lettering with fireworks, rockets, a US flag and an Uncle Sam top hat
Reddit post from r/ShitAmericansSay by u/Liggliluff. Title: "Americans when the date is the same in both date formats". Image shows "HAPPY 4/4 DAY!!" with party emoji, over a photo of multiple Audi cars (Audi logo is four interlocking rings). Comments: Liggliluff OP: "Also 4/4 is the National Day of Senegal". CardboardChampion: "Let me guess, Americans celebrating cars built in Germany?"
Facebook/Instagram comment thread. First comment (username redacted, 1w): "Today is 12.11.23 which day-month-year is it? because I am thinking December. Not the wrong way which is November." Reply (username redacted, 1w): "November 12th, 2023 is the current date, not December 11th, 2023." Reply (username redacted, 1w): "its funny because nobody asked about how AMERICANS specifically write dates"
X/Twitter thread. First tweet (username redacted, 22h): "What comes first when we talk? We say March 4th, not the 4th of March. So the month comes first. That's why we write MM/DD/YYYY." Reply (username redacted, 20h): "4th of July"
Reddit post from r/confidentlyincorrect. Title: "A new satisfying reason of why Americans say mm/dd/yyyy" with screenshot of a YouTube comment: "The American way of writing dates actually makes more sense because there are fewer months (12) than there are days (28-31), and there are fewer days than years (technically infinite). So, it goes from the smallest possible to the largest possible amount. The rest of the world's way of writing dates goes medium, small, large which doesn't make sense."
YouTube comment (username redacted, 2 months ago, hearted by creator). Text: "I'm so confused, this video was uploaded on the 8th of January, how does it already have mass comments from 3 months ago?? Like comments from October. Did this come out earlier somewhere? Edit: oh wait, Americans write dates differently. I was reading October 1 as the first of October rather than January 10th" Show less
Reddit post from r/facepalm by u/Bluefortress (4d, 12 awards). Title: "My American education has failed me". Screenshot shows Wikipedia article for "September 11 attacks" with info box showing Date: September 11, 2001 and the commenter has circled/annotated it confused, apparently not understanding why 9/11 is called 9/11 when the date format shows September 11
Reddit comment thread. Original post about expiry dates on products. WasabiSteak (4h): "In the Philippines, one can never tell because it could be in either format, even on the same shelf." CanadaJack (3h): "In Canada as well, being influenced by both US and European conventions, we see both. At least when there's only numbers. That's why the best format is 2022 FEB 14 or 14 FEB 2022 - any non-ambiguous order." Irlut (2h): "2022 FEB 14 is the best format because it puts things in order of significance."
X/Twitter thread. First tweet (username redacted, 5 Sep): "Boycott everything English, NFL should stop measuring in yards" Reply (username redacted, 5 Sep): "English don't use yards though" Reply (username redacted, 5 Sep): "It's a unit of measurement in the English system of measurement" Reply (username redacted, 5 Sep): "I don't think you understand that the English don't use the 'English' system of measurement. Only the Americans do. Us English use the metric system" Reply (username redacted, 5 Sep): "Well that's funny because we call it the English system."
Reddit comment. StreetsAhead123 (5h): "Fahrenheit has entered the chat" with laughing emoji. SomeGuyNamedPaul (5h): "You can just say America because when America enters the chat then Fahrenheit, short tons, miles, inches, cups, and MM/DD/YYYY all walk in with it."
Reddit comment thread. RickTheGray (7h): "Lol what are these other countries date formats? Let's go day month year? Pfffttt. We do month day year because that's the correct order." biIIyshakes (7h): "people always trot this take out there but by this logic, time should be expressed seconds:minutes:hours" RickTheGray (-10 votes, 7h): "No because seconds minutes hours is small medium big. We like to go medium small big. Then convert it to military to go big small medium."
Reddit comment thread. Aether_Warrior (19h, -3 votes): "To be fair, the superior format is the American format. It makes more sense to go month/day/year because January through December is 1-12, and the days go 1-28, 29, 30, or 31 depending on month. So, it goes small/medium/large as opposed to medium/small/large. And if you want to incorporate time, it goes hours (1-12 or 24) minutes (1-60) seconds (1-60), so in small medium large format as well, so it is American/time/European. Just saying." Several replies including "this is the dumbest thing I've read this month" and "How are you saying 12 is less than 28?"
Reddit comment thread. Screaming_brain (3h): "Wait until they learn about the 24hr clock" DennisBallShow (3h): "That's MILITARY time bro. We're the only ones who have a military. Ever." (with /s sarcasm tag)
Social media comment thread. First comment (username redacted, 11w): "12 hour clock? Only Americans use that. 24 hour clock is used everywhere else. And it's DD/MM/YYYY everywhere except US." Reply (username redacted, 11w): "Actually 24 hour is only used for military time." Reply (username redacted, 11w): "it's not, it's literally used daily and widely in most countries." Reply (username redacted, 11w): "Still though only the military uses it"
Facebook comment thread. First comment (US flag avatar, 4d - thumbs up, laughing): "Europe uses the 24 hr clock system cuz of the world wars. Their military integrated with our military training. We taught them 24 hr time in ww1." Reply (14h - thumbs up, laughing): "Brits been using 24hr clock since 1900s, before the US entered WW1"
YouTube comment (Zach, 2 weeks ago): "In the UK, 24hr time is known as military time, and it should stay that way. Imagine walking up to someone and asking what time it is and they say 'it's 14:30.' That sounds so dumb"
Reddit comment thread on red/dark background with Italian-language interface ("Vota", "Rispondi", "Condividi"). First comment (username redacted, min fa, downvoted): "how does the date on here say 4/3/2025 at 8 pm when it is currently 4/3/2025 and not even 10 am yet. USA doesnt have enough time zones to account for that gap..." Reply (username redacted, 6 min fa): "This will blow your mind, other countries exist." Reply (username redacted, 1 min fa): "And there is a whole planet full of them. Countries all over the planet. Crazy place."
X/Twitter thread with Swedish-language interface ("Svar till"). First tweet (username redacted, 7h): "Drake makes music for people who follow 'Billionaire Mindset' accounts on here" Reply (username redacted, 12m): "You tweeted this at 5 in the morning. He certainly has a hold over you." Reply (same woman, username redacted, 10m): "I'm in the U.K." Reply (same man, username redacted, "Svar till"): "5AM is 5AM. Don't embarrass yourself any further. He still lives rent free in your mind."
X/Twitter thread with Italian-language interface ("In risposta a"). First tweet (Spider-14h): "I do not understand why Americans put the month first. Doesn't it make It easier if the day is first since that's the most important piece of info?" Reply (man in suit avatar, 12h): "Because we don't follow your colonial ways anymore. 06/02/21 is way easier to understand than 02/06/21" Reply (cartoon cap avatar, 1h): "Uh, no. The date is what changes the most and is the hardest to keep track of, then the month and then the year. DDMMYYYY is the most straight forward, you just grew up with MMDDYYYY so you like it. America made so many changes just to be different." Reply (Firetype avatar, 1h): "If you don't like it we'll just nuke you lol"
Reddit comment thread. Liam4Fingarz (1h) with "14" flair: "31/1". ripcayde_6 (35m, 2 downvotes) with "17" flair: "This is the land of the free sir, we say month first"
Photo of computer screen showing genealogy/family tree form. Text at top: "What does this mean? I've tried writing the whole month out with no abbreviations and this still comes up.. Do I save anyways??" Form shows Gender (Female selected), Status (Living selected), Birthdate field with "August 1, 1959" entered. Error message: "This format can be saved, but may impact our ability to find hints. Please use DD MMM YYYY." Save anyway / Cancel buttons. Windows taskbar visible at bottom
Twitter thread. Tweet (username redacted, Feb 27): "you had to be there" with screenshots showing someone celebrating Oxford University acceptance. UCAS status: "Your place at University of Oxford O33 for Medicine A100 has been confirmed" (13/08/2020). University of Oxford @UniofOxford replying "YYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS! See you in October!" with party popper emoji (13/08/2020). Original person: "who said i was gonna accept?" (15:02, 13/08/2020). Reply below (username redacted): "WHATS UP WITH THE DATE - what month is 13 supposed to be" with crying emoji
TikTok/Instagram comment thread with German-language interface (Antworten, Ubersetzung anzeigen). pat_banks27 (6 Tg.): "Love how it says 4/1/24. I date that has not arrived yet." elisabethklu (6 Tg.): "@pat_banks27 that is how we write dates in Norway. First the date, then the month and the year at the end" (211 weitere Antworten ansehen). precious_0904 (3 Tg.): "It's actually 1/4/24 you guys" (1 vorherige Antwort ansehen). jockebergin (21 Std.): "Yeah no its not.. There entire world goes by day/month/year. Its only you americans who does it with total loss of logic" with grinning emoji. jp_flanagan65 (7 Tg.): "April 1 2024? Lol"
Amazon product review screenshot (1 star, Verified Purchase, username redacted). Title: "Kind of sketched out?" Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022. Photo of product label showing "MFG:07/01/2022 EXP:06/01/2025". Text: "I'm concerned that it says it was manufactured in July 2022... since it's only February. Makes me feel a little skeptical about putting this on my skin." 5 people found this helpful
TikTok/Instagram comment thread. Three comments, all timestamped 8-10. First (username redacted): "is nobody noticing the date says september of this year..??" Second (username redacted): "It's 9th January 2024 (09/01/2024)" Third (username redacted): "baby thats not how u write a date"
Facebook comment (US flag avatar with "2025 - 2028" text overlay, username redacted, 8h - laughing and thumbs up). Text: "How is day smaller than month. There are 12 months and there are 28-31 days. So, mm/dd/yyyy makes perfect sense."
TikTok screenshot. Video showing young man with blond hair in grey hoodie, confused expression. Caption on video: "Americans correcting English spellings" with US and UK flag emojis. section below. First comment (username redacted, 18h): "gas= gasoline, mm/dd/year because we say may 9th 2025 instead of the ninth of may 2025, and basically the entire history of linguistics" with crying emojis. Second comment (username redacted, 17h): "Ur Independence Day is literally the 4th of July" with broken heart emojis
Tags:US date/time·US is Earth·SAS·USA

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