# Why is written date order month/day/year? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931 "2003-11-24T03:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931/21 "2003-11-25T13:59:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary T \* > **That aside, the better question would be, why did you Brits change from the system you established in America? > From [http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar\_date](http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_date)** I fear that the author of the Wikipedia article is a little confused. It is certainly misleading to say that the month/day/year format ‘was traditional in England’ and that ‘[s]ince the 1900s the English have begun to use the d/m/y format, imported from Europe’. Both the m/d/y and the d/m/y formats had been in use in England for centuries and were pretty much interchangable. Indeed, it was not uncommon for writers to use both within the same document. What is true is that the m/d/y format, as in ‘November 25th, 2003’, was more widely used and that this was especially so in print. What changed during the twentieth century was that many UK publishing houses decided that they preferred the d/m/y format. This was part of the wider move towards less cluttered design. Thus the really big change was the abandonment of the use of ‘st’, ‘nd’, ‘rd’ and ‘th’ for the day numerials. The arguments for using the form ‘25 November 2003’ in print is partly an aesthetic one. However, this change was never universally adopted. A number of UK publishers, including the _Times_ and some of the other major newspapers, still prefer m/d/y, although usually as ‘November 25, 2003’. The point is that, so long as the month is given as a word, there can be no ambiguity and both formats can exist happily alongside each other. It is just a matter of style. Problems only arise if numerials only are used and the idea of writing dates in numerials only did not become widespread in the UK until the twentieth century. By the time it did, the change in printing fashions meant that neither format seemed the more obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931/22 "2003-11-25T14:47:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary T \* > Month-day-year, American numeric date format. > > Day-month-year, English numeric date format > > Year-month-day, European numeric date format > \*\* I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the day-month-year format in Italy and France–I don’t recall ever seen the year-month-day format. I’ve always assumed the day-month-year format was the standard Continental format, though I could be mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![disponibilite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@disponibilite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/disponibilite)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931/23 "2003-11-25T15:16:23Z")
French common usage has always been day/month/year. And I think most of Europe is that way and the Brits just copied the Europeans. It makes sense in French anyway to be day/month/year…since they say “quatorze juillet” (July 14 to us). They never say “juillet quatorze” ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931/24 "2003-11-25T15:24:50Z")
A random flick through today’s European papers: Le Monde (French) : mardi 25 Novembre 2003 Le Parisien (French) : Mardi 25 nov 2003 Jyllands-Posten (Danish) : Tirsdag den 25. november De Gazet Van Tielt (Belgium) : 25/11/2003 Express (Greek) : 25/11/2003 Die Welt (German) : Dienstag, 25. November 2003 and 25.11 Der Spiegel (Geman) : Dienstag, 25. November 2003 La Padania (Italian) : martedì 25 novembre 2003 El Mundo (Spanish) : Martes, 25 de Noviembre de 2003. Troms Folkeblad (Norwegian) : 25.11 and Tirsdag 25. november All in the format Day, Month, Year or Day Month. None lead with year or month. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931/25 "2003-11-25T15:47:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Futile Gesture \* > All in the format Day, Month, Year or Day Month. > > None lead with year or month. The format should vary with the situation. In formal Swedish we use YYYYMMDD, but in newspapers, personal letters etc we would write 25/11 2003 or 25 november 2003. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-written-date-order-month-day-year/214931.md?page=1)