dd/mm/yyyy is the way to go, imo

[flamb]

shortest to longest
mm/dd/yyyy is just confusing; you're always unsure of what is what
the only rational explanation i ever got was "well, you say *june fifth* so that sort of makes sense going 06/05

but still
smallest to largest makes more sense

[BreakABone]

I've grown accustomed to mm/dd/yyyy so its the form I use.

[Teuthida]

Typically use mm/dd/yyyy for dating simple things...what used through school.

For my own records I use yyyy/mm/dd. Makes the most sense trying to find something.

[The Germanator]

Month/Day/Year seems to be the common thing here in the States (I think), but I've seen others as well. In general I get confused in the UK/Europe because on a calender September 15th will be listed as 15/9 and it always gets me. When I think about my birthday I think month/day/year, I dunno, it's what we grew up on writing in school notebooks, you can't really change that in your brain.

[Soviet Stinger]

month/the birthday of the closest family member born in that month/century/day of the week/date/decade/year

perfect

EDIT:

Today is 6/17/21/F/05/00/9

[C.H]

Well here in Japan they do year/month/day, which i occationally find confusing. I personally think the day/month/year standard is the most logical, it's chronological and you're refering to a particular day when you write a date, so it makes sense you write the day first. Coincidentally, this particular issue has bothered me recently, and i haven't found an oppertunity to talk about it because it seemed a little trivial. I thank the flamb.

[Angrist]

Today in Europe it's 6-6-09. Oh, bad example. dd/mm/yy(yy).
I get really confused with the American system and it doesn't make sense to me. You're going from medium to small, to large.

I voted yyyy/mm/dd because a thesis supervisor taught me that. It's very useful to find stuff chronologically.

[Ric]

dd/mm/yyyy

When you are talking about a date you may be asked, 'what day/what month/what year' so this order makes far more sense to me. I never understood the American way of writing it, it is not logical to me. When we say the date in the UK we would not say 'It's June the 6th' we would say 'It's the 6th of June' if speaking in correct English.

This is one of those little things that gets on my nerves, something else is when people put Sunday as the first day of the week, it's not, Monday is. Sunday is the last day of the week. While we are on the subject I also hate clocks that have roman numerals on and instead of using the correct characters for 4 which are IV they put IIII. You even get this on antique clocks, and it is wrong. Why do they do this, Why?

[manasecret]

Just guessing here, but perhaps the American way came from the usual way of saying a date in English in the U.S. -- e.g. it's August 30th, 1984.

dd/mm/yyyy

When you are talking about a date you may be asked, 'what day/what month/what year' so this order makes far more sense to me. I never understood the American way of writing it, it is not logical to me. When we say the date in the UK we would not say 'It's June the 6th' we would say 'It's the 6th of June' if speaking in correct English.

This is one of those little things that gets on my nerves, something else is when people put Sunday as the first day of the week, it's not, Monday is. Sunday is the last day of the week. While we are on the subject I also hate clocks that have roman numerals on and instead of using the correct characters for 4 which are IV they put IIII. You even get this on antique clocks, and it is wrong. Why do they do this, Why?

Haha if you let cultural differences like that (minus the Roman numeral of IIII, which is just incorrect) bother you so much, you're going to have a very annoyed life.

[Ric]

So what do you say if asked your date of birth?

In my case I would say - 'The Second Of The Seventh, Eighty Four.'
If I said it the American way would I have to say? 'The Seventh Month And The Second Day Of Eighty Four' ... It just does not sit right with me.

EDIT: It's not that the differences 'really' bother me. I just think some things are silly because they are not logical to me. I guess I should remember there is a difference between English English and American English. IIII on a clock is just pathetically stupid though. I am not trying to shit on anyones cultural differences, thats just the way I feel.

[manasecret]

Well for one, I've never heard of saying the month as a number in regular speech. Do you really say "The Second of the Seventh"?

I would say (and as far as I know this is the typical way throughout the U.S.) is exactly as I wrote it -- August Thirtieth, Nineteen-Eighty-Four (perhaps shortened to just Eighty-Four). Which matches to the way we typically write by numbers -- 08/30/1984.

[Ric]

Well for one, I've never heard of saying the month as a number in regular speech. Do you really say "The Second of the Seventh"?

I would say (and as far as I know this is the typical way throughout the U.S.) is exactly as I wrote it -- August Thirtieth, Nineteen-Eighty-Four (perhaps shortened to just Eighty-Four). Which matches to the way we typically write by numbers -- 08/30/1984.

I have always said The Second Of The Seventh yes. I will say the Second Of July but not very often.

I dont usually speak my own language properly though so I will say July the Second on occasion if asked when my birthday is. So I suppose I contradict myself there.

[The Germanator]

So what do you say if asked your date of birth?

In my case I would say - 'The Second Of The Seventh, Eighty Four.'
If I said it the American way would I have to say? 'The Seventh Month And The Second Day Of Eighty Four' ... It just does not sit right with me.



That's really what you would say if some asked for your birthday? We usually don't even numerically say the month, we only do that when we write it. A simple response would be "August 15th, 1985." Is that really that odd? Just as the 15th of August, 1985 wouldn't be that weird either..

I think the weirdness just becomes with the muscle memory of writing it the way we do. For whatever reason I was taught to write 8/15/85 for the date above, and if I saw it as 15/8/85 it would take me a second because my brain doesn't immediately recognize that pattern. I understand why both sides think the other is strange, mainly because we didn't learn it that way.

EDIT: Mana stole my thunder, whoops. Heh.

[Typhoid]

mm/dd/yyyy


I find that's typically how it is shorthand, and I find it less confusing, personally.

[gekko]

mm/dd/yyyy is my favorite. Used yyyymmdd in the military, which makes it easier to sort with a computer, but I'm not a computer. Use mm/dd/yyyy.

[Ric]

I think the weirdness just becomes with the muscle memory of writing it the way we do. For whatever reason I was taught to write 8/15/85 for the date above, and if I saw it as 15/8/85 it would take me a second because my brain doesn't immediately recognize that pattern. I understand why both sides think the other is strange, mainly because we didn't learn it that way.

EDIT: Mana stole my thunder, whoops. Heh.

I would have to agree. It's like you say, you just have to think about it for a few seconds more.

Just to clear something up, if asked my 'Date Of Birth' I would say The Second of the Seventh.
If asked 'when is my birthday' I would either say The Second Of July (which is the correct way) or July The Second (which is actually a slang/bad english way of saying it.) I speak two languages, English and Bad English :lol:

[Angrist]

In Dutch we would say 'Two June 1983'. No 'th' after the day. Really makes it a lot faster.

Oh, they also do it that way in French and German. Probably more languages.

[manasecret]

In Dutch we would say 'Two June 1983'. No 'th' after the day. Really makes it a lot faster.

OMG, if I had just dropped the 'th' for all these years I've been saying dates I would have saved a whole two minutes of my life! :p

[Angrist]

I'll have you know that 'th' is annoying to pronounce for most foreigners.

Of course we don't say that in Dutch. :) (Usually 'de': eerste, tweede, derde, vierde, vijfde, zesde, zevende, achtste, negende, tiende...)

[Ric]

Back to that thing about clocks.

Hooray For Full Metal Alchemist. (Except for putting the numbers in the wrong place.)

[jeepnut]

Back to that thing about clocks.

Hooray For Full Metal Alchemist. (Except for putting the numbers in the wrong place.)

Technically that's more logical though than putting 12 at the top. Sort of...

[Angrist]

I like those mirrored clocks.
Makes you realize how totally random we see certain things.

[KillerGremlin]

Unless you are archiving something or sorting music, I do dd/mm/yyyy.

Usually on homework and stuff I just put date/year, but on papers I put the dd/mm/yyyy.

If you are indexing music it's best to go by year. And for archiving shit it's best to go year/month/date.

I never understood why United States driver license and birth certificates always go MM/DD/YYYY. The year is most important for buying booze and stuff and I hate it when the cashier guy has to think about when I was born for 6 minutes to figure out if I'm 21. It's pretty fucking simple though. It's 2009. If you were born before '88 you can buy booze. If you really need to get picky you need to have been born before June in '88.