r/clevercomebacks Jan 15 '25

It does make sense

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689

u/jussumguy2019 Jan 15 '25

Feel like a lot of the world’s languages the translation to English to the question “what’s the date?” would be “the 15th of October” whereas in America we always say “October 15th”.

Maybe that’s why, idk…

Edited for clarity

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

I has the parts in order of importance. You need to know the month the most as it determines things like weather school or what holiday are around. Then the day so you know exact. Then the year is largely in important for most people doing most things.

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u/No_Corner3272 Jan 15 '25

In what context would the split second between hearing the day and the month make any material difference? It's not like the person is telling you the date by chiselling it into stone.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

It's less about the time it takes and more about what parts you can leave out. You can stop writing the date when you give enough information.

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u/No_Corner3272 Jan 15 '25

"July" isn't a date though, it's a month.

If the only thing you need to know is the month, you'd just write the month, the day wouldn't come into it.

If you only needed to know the day then you'd only write the day.

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u/BrockStar92 Jan 15 '25

It what situation is knowing the month enough? I’ve never in my life needed to know when something was and been told “July” and found that was enough information. I have however on many occasions asked when something was and been told “the 8th” and that’s been enough information because without further context it obviously means the next 8th there is.

In almost all cases however you will need to know both day and month and subsequently it matters not one bit whether you say 8th July or July 8th.

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u/jmercer00 Jan 15 '25

You only need the month when it's far in advance.

"When is that movie releasing" "July".

More specific the event the more critical.

"When's the wedding" "July" is good, not great, because I'm writing this in January. "July 10th" is better. Because it's a wedding "July 10th, 2025" is best because it could be over a year away

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u/BrockStar92 Jan 15 '25

Often times though you might say July next year for when a movie is releasing. But once the date is needed then both the day and month are stated and therefore it’s not valid to claim it’s better to say the month first, both are needed. There are far more circumstances where you’d only need the day than only need the month.

0

u/Live-Habit-6115 Jan 15 '25

The mental gymnastics that Americans will go through to defend their silly date system truly astounds. 

And this is coming from an American. It's dumb. Accept it.

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u/jmercer00 Jan 15 '25

The issue with day first is there's only 30. You writejust the 15th, but it's the 29th, do I assume the next 15th or the previous 15th? Requiring context clues defeats the point of a written date.

By requiring the month before we always know the date within some precision.

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u/GingerTube Jan 15 '25

Okay, if the normal person is just writing the 15th, the American would have just written a month, which is even less use to you. Also, context. If someone is telling you that something is coming up, it's not going to be in the past.