I can never remember which comes first when you write the date that way, the month or the day. So I looked it up and as with most things, it depends…
Seems if you live in the US, the month comes first, and if you live in almost the rest of the world, the day comes first. Here is one explanation for the difference:
As a UK citizen who has worked for a US company, I have never had this explained to me and I have asked! Logic would dictate that you start with the smallest unit (a day) followed by the next largest (a month) and completed by the biggest (a year) However this is logical and would explain why the Americans don’t do it. We use a temperature scale where water freezes at 0 and boils at 100. In the US they use a system where water freezes at 32 and boils at 212. Logic?
I’ve done it! I have figured it out. Americans write like they speak, or speak the way a word appears. The u goes from colour, lieutenant becomes lootenant and not leftenant. A British person would say “See you on the 30th of May” an American would say “See you May 30th” Verbally they swop the day and the month around, so they write it that way.
Except that today it makes no difference at all.
JVH
