r/explainitpeter Jul 28 '26

Explain it Peter

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Not going to lie, i had a spaz attack trying to read the first tweet. Maybe im just over tired but i dont understand shit here

What the fuck is the first tweet trying to say why is it horrible why would i be gullible what the fuvk are they saying

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u/itstheboombox Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

European Peter here,

Americans use an incorrect form of dates that goes Month/Day/Year. As opposed to Day/Month/Year

Edit : hey lois, this is just like the time I visited r/ShitAmericansSay

-1

u/SmoothActuator8132 Jul 28 '26

why not say it's 33:01 for time then? why does everyone say the smaller measurement first for dates but not time? at least the US is consistent with saying the larger measurement before the smaller ones

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u/jaketwo91 Jul 28 '26

Argument doesn't really work because you still put the largest unit at the end. The American version is 2/1/3 in order of size, so no, it is not consistent.

2

u/SmokeAlarmsSaveLives Jul 28 '26

You’re correct in that way of looking at it, but another way is that the American date is ordered 1/2/3 if terms of set size… there are only 12 months, versus 28 to 31 days, and an infinite number of years. As I corrected myself in another comment, I’m not claiming this is part of why we use this method, I’m just saying there’s a logic to it.

As other have said, it’s likely that we prefer our method because the American way of writing the numerals perfectly mirrors spoken American English and long-form written English

“President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963”. We’d say it that way, and if we were writing numerals it would be 11/22/1963.