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scorpio vega

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he 'comma as decimal' issue in financial situations is usually fairly obvious so long as you have a basic awareness.
It trips me up every so often when i go to other countries and read the currency lol. But it is generally common sense like you said.
If something is coming up early in 2024, then 1/2/2024 vs 2/1/2024 is totally confusing.

There is less ambiguity when the day number is greater than 12. But around two fifths of day numbers aren't.

Day before month has an impressively long history in speech - the ides of March? And if that is someone's birthday they are very likely to say, if asked, 15th March. That is, dare I say, common enough in the UK to possibly count as "usual"?
You literally proved my point. It is common for you to say it that way in UK thus you write your day as such. It is uncommon for an American like myself to say 15th March. I'd say March 15th.

If i see 1/2/2024 i am going to assume January 2nd because that is how i'd say it.
Well naturally it is a bit chicken and the egg, is it really because you speak like that? The rest of the english speaking world doesn't speak like that.
You do realize different regions have different dialects and spellings lol. It's not quite odd at all :p

1. Maths= Math
2. Colour= Color

etc etc. Even the pronunciation of the same word spelled the same way is different.

You pronounce the word Leisure LESHUR while American say LEE SHUR
Niche is Neesh in UK and Nitch in America
Privacy is Priv-UH-See in UK and PRY-VA-SEE in America.

So yes it makes sens that both regions would do the date how the speak the date.

You will never hear an American say today is the 18th of December. Because that sounds way too old english. Sure, we would know what you mean but it sounds weird.

Just like OLDER americans and more new/millenial americans tell time differently.

it's presently 5:45 am.

If i ask my mom what time it is "She'd say A quarter to 6" aka 5:45

If she asked me what time it was I'd say 5:45

Both mean the same thing but the way she says it is indicative of how people back in the older generation used to speak.
 

scorpio vega

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Yet, how would you actually pronounce the date? It makes perfect sense to name versioned documents "yyyymmdd_document.docx", but "today's 2024, February, 3" sounds like you're having a stroke.

ii think they literally say it how they write it lol.
the eighteenth of December 2023

At least that's how my british ex says it. British people and their way of English sounds incredibly proper to Americans so it is weird hearing it like this for me.
 

polyphenol

macrumors 68020
Sep 9, 2020
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You literally proved my point. It is common for you to say it that way in UK thus you write your day as such. It is uncommon for an American like myself to say 15th March. I'd say March 15th.
But the problem isn't when the month is a word - it is when it is a number!

And I have often heard USA things on the radio where they say March 15 - not fifteenth. Indeed, I thought it was usual to avoid the ordinals?

And March 15th is also pretty common in the UK. Just, I suggest, not as common as 15th March. If someone even switched dates round mid-sentence, it would pass by almost unnoticed.
 

scorpio vega

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But the problem isn't when the month is a word - it is when it is a number!
But since we say Month first then date then year

It makes sens that when we see 3/5/2024 we automatically know it as March 5, 2024
And I have often heard USA things on the radio where they say March 15 - not fifteenth.
I have lived here all my life and i dont think i have ever heard this but if i did it probably sounds close enough to fifteenth that I simply heard the th part even if it was not said since i'd expect it.

Those people probably speak with poor grammar/slang on radio.

I certainly do not want your date nor your time format (I hated dating a military guy because our time was always military lol).

But i have stolen quite a bit of British (and other European) slang. I use Mate/M8 quite often in the place of dude and I even more so use my favorite 4 letter C word in place of my favorite B word in swearing :)
 

Abdichoudxyz

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British people and their way of English sounds incredibly proper to Americans
That's because English is actually from England. So naturally, we speak it 'properly'. US 'English' has become bastardised as a result of other languages and cultures finding home in the US, so many words and forms of grammar have become simplified. And many early European settlers in the US weren't so well educated, so mispelling was common. For eg; things like 'colour' and 'favour' lost letters to become 'color' and favor'. And then there's the thing with the Z's. Initialise - Initialize. Etc. Thats more about the sound; it seems more logical perhaps to substitute a z for an s in such cases.

For balance; we English think US Americans often speak incorrectly. Because they do. ;)
 

ric22

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Mar 8, 2022
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American date system actually makes more sense than the other way. I actually wish this was standard everywhere in the world because 06/02/2024 has a different meaning in US and UK. US that's june 2nd, Uk that's February 6th.

1. It's faster to figure out.

If i have an assignment due March 3, 2024 it is easier for me to figure out the date faster reading 3/24/2024 than it is 24/3/2024 because i already know by default the month is march.

The day also is reliant on the month as for example there will never be a 30/31st in February so it's easier to already know what month we are talking about.


2. My birthday is October 31

When someone asks me when my bday is i always answer October 31st or Halloween(usually this way but for example purpose lets act like it is not halloween).

It make sense i would write my birthday 10/31/1996. Nobody in American english answers that question with "my birthday is the 31st of October" aka 31/10/1996. It doesn't sound write therefore i wouldnt write it as such.

In America it is also common to simply drop the month if we are talking about a date within the same month. Example: Are you coming to the christmas party on the 22nd?

Simply, the American way of writing dates makes sense because it doesnt make sense to SPEAK the date one way and write it another way. We write the dates as we speak it.
It makes sense if you grew up with it... but it lacks logic because the units aren't in size order.
 

mtbdudex

macrumors 68030
Aug 28, 2007
2,882
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The only time Americans use metric is for engine size and bullets.

Well it’s the “Merry Christmas comment, with 26 replies in a few hours to a thread 4 1/2 months dormant.

Btw, my 390 cubic inch FE engine is in imperial units
32196ecaf31ce6b437af2de29461417a.jpg
 

scorpio vega

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That's because English is actually from England. So naturally, we speak it 'properly'. US 'English' has become bastardised as a result of other languages and cultures finding home in the US, so many words and forms of grammar have become simplified. And many early European settlers in the US weren't so well educated, so mispelling was common. For eg; things like 'colour' and 'favour' lost letters to become 'color' and favor'. And then there's the thing with the Z's. Initialise - Initialize. Etc. Thats more about the sound; it seems more logical perhaps to substitute a z for an s in such cases.

For balance; we English think US Americans often speak incorrectly. Because they do. ;)
I wouldn't say it is bastardized. It evolved. You don't see British people speaking the same way Geoffrey Chaucer or Shakespeare would speak. UK english too has evolved (one could use bastardized there lol). I don't think british people speak or spell proper. It's just a variation. Similar to how even in America, there are different words that mean the same thing.

Pop means Soda in the Mid west US but you will never hear someone from my sate of North carolina call it a Pop. They'll say Soda. Or you'll hear someone say "Frying pan vs skillet" depending on where in the states you are.

Or the ever so funny stereotype. People elsewhere say you guys but in the south we say Y'all (you all) lol.

I do find it funny anytime I am using a software or website that is based in another English speaking country, my words will come up as incorrect even though I am in fact spelling them correctly (the American way).

Now what i will say about British people is your accent makes the most heinous of things sound so pleasant. I watch a lot of true crime documentaries and listen to 999 calls from the UK(and 911 from the us).

THey can be talking about a gruesome murder or just found out about a terrible massacre.
The narrator or operator just sounds like they are reading you a bedtime story :) lmao
 

polyphenol

macrumors 68020
Sep 9, 2020
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Those people probably speak with poor grammar/slang on radio.
I'm not referring to vox pops - but to properly produced programs often directly quoting written words such as diaries. And with otherwise impeccable credentials. Produced both in the USA and in the UK.

One example, from memory, was a diary of Thoreau. The printed text shows no ordinals.

April 30. What is a chamber to which the sun does
not rise in the morning?

But whether he would himself have said "thirty" or "thirtieth", I rely on the program makers.
 

scorpio vega

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April 30. What is a chamber to which the sun doesnot rise in the morning?
So me reading this in my mind, i already subconsciously read it as April 30th even without the th at the end just because it is what i am used to lol

It would sound weird for me to say April 30. Also that sentence does not sound like a typical American way of speaking.Even in the most proper of American ways lol. If someone spoke like that to me, I'd think they were being a bit uppity lol.
 

Abdichoudxyz

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May 16, 2023
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I wouldn't say it is bastardized.
I wouldn't either. I'd say 'bastardised'. ;)

I wouldn't say US English has 'evolved'. Devolved, perhaps.
I don't think British people speak or spell properly. It's just a variation.
Well, we do. It's our language. It's not a 'variation', it's the original. US English is a variation.
 

JonaM

macrumors regular
Sep 26, 2017
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I wouldn't either. I'd say 'bastardised'. ;)

I wouldn't say US English has 'evolved'. Devolved, perhaps.

Well, we do. It's our language. It's not a 'variation', it's the original. US English is a variation.
Actually some US English elements are actually closer to the original English roots and it's UK English that has evolved ( or devolved if you prefer)
 

scorpio vega

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Well, we do. It's our language. It's not a 'variation', it's the original. US English is a variation.
I hate to bust your bubble but the English you speak today is in fact a variation of OLD ENGLISH lmao. So yes it is a variation and American English is a variation of a Variation. You certainly do not speak anywhere close to what someone from the 1200s spoke. And you may have similarities with some of Middle English but still it is not the same.

So actually...British english is a variation/evolution of another Variation (Middle English) that evolved from the original English (Old English)

So yes, you do speak a variation of English. But you are right US English is a variation of British which can be argued is a bastardization of the original Old English it derived from :)
 
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scorpio vega

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It's an evolution of English. In England. The language we speak is of this land. The language you speak is a version of ours.
LMAO the english did not create the language. It is what was originally German LMAO. Your lanuage is a variation of a Germanic language (old English) that evolved to what you use as Modern English. You can't rewrite history, Mate lol
Nah, if you were then you'd apologised first :p
Actually from my experience, the british are quite a stubborn people :)
 
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