Confused over date format

[Bedspring]

Hello,

I have reserved a night in an Albergue and the confirmation says Fecha de entrada: 2024-06-05. In the UK we would write this as 05-06-2024, is that what this means, 5th June 2024, I am just checking as I think the USA write it differently.
Of course I could email the Albergue but I suspect they could be busy at the moment and could do with out extra work.

Thanks in advance

 

[VNwalking]

Well...what did you request?
Surely it's the same?

 

[TravellingMan22]

Hello,

I have reserved a night in an Albergue and the confirmation says Fecha de entrada: 2024-06-05. In the UK we would write this as 05-06-2024, is that what this means, 5th June 2024, I am just checking as I think the USA write it differently.
Of course I could email the Albergue but I suspect they could be busy at the moment and could do with out extra work.

Thanks in advance

If you booked for 5th June this is what it means. The USA date convention (month/day) is often seen across European bookings sites.

 

[Bedspring]

If you booked for 5th June this is what it means. The USA date convention (month/day) is often seen across European bookings.

Yes, that is what I think I booked, but I begin to doubt myself sometimes.

 

[Pafayac]

There are 2 convenient ways to express a date:
- DD-MM-YYYY, mainly used for human beings.
- YYYY-MM-DD, more oriented to business processing.

If you find somebody, in Europe, who expresses a date according to MM-DD-YYYY, it should be an american guy !

 

[TravellingMan22]

Yes, that is what I think I booked, but I begin to doubt myself sometimes.

It’s fine! It not uncommon at all, even when booked through European sites. Sites feed off each other.

 

[Bedspring]

It’s fine! It not uncommon at all, even when booked through European sites. Sites feed off each other.

Thank you, just needed a little reassurance.

 

[TravellingMan22]

Thank you, just needed a little reassurance.

Sure it can be confusing and disconcerting when you experience it for the first time, esp. on a European site!

 

[HBS60]

If it’s any consolation to those confused, I’m Latino, born and raised in PR, where we used the format “5 de junio de 2024” (05-06-2024), but…I’ve lived in the mainland US for so long that I’m now used to the American format 06-05-2024, so when I was booking my stays for the first few days in August, I panicked when I saw 07-08-2024 on the confirmation email, it took me a little while to realize that it read August 7, not July 8. So even I got confused, because my Spanish has gotten a bit rusty over the years. Also, I wasn’t aware of the different formats for humans and businesses as Pafayac mentioned above.

 

[naplesdon]

Safety in numbers, just do your bookings for 6/6, 7/7, 8/8....no worries.

 

[Pafayac]

Safety in numbers, just do your bookings for 6/6, 7/7, 8/8....no worries.

You can improve this method by sleeping under a tent the 12 first days of each month, booking only from the 13th.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I made a mistake booking a train when I was inexperienced because I made our reservations based on the day of the week. I hadn't noticed that Spain's calendar week started on a Monday instead of our Sunday. The easy fix was to extend our stay in Barcelona by a day.

 

[naplesdon]

I made a mistake booking a train when I was inexperienced because I made our reservations based on the day of the week. I hadn't noticed that Spain's calendar week started on a Monday instead of our Sunday. The easy fix was to extend our stay in Barcelona by a day.

"**it happens" and I hope you had a great meal on the segundo dia. Thank God in Portugal, Sunday says something about our Lord and Monday is Segunda Feira or we would all be lost about calendar days.

 

[Dave2525]

The ISO format is yyyy-mm-dd. I find it much easier since when I see 03-05-2024, depending on the source, I can't tell if it is May 3rd or March 5th. With the ISO format there is no confusion.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

The ISO format is yyyy-mm-dd. I find it much easier since when I see 03-05-2024, depending on the source, I can't tell if it is May 3rd or March 5th. With the ISO format there is no confusion.

Plus, when the date is in decreasing order (with leading zeros) at the start of the names of files their listings come up arranged in chronological and alphabetical order both.

Edit: Here's an example. You see the date and time in the filenames. Also below the filename in the American mm/dd/yy format. The time there is six hours off from that in the filename due to the time zone differences.

 

[C clearly]

I always use the ISO (International Standards Organization) of year-month-day - today being 2024-05-03. It is easy to remember - from big unit of time, to small. It avoids the confusion between US and European styles. Further, as Rick says, it is perfect for sorting in numerical/chrono order.

 

[Flog]

Yes, that is what I think I booked, but I begin to doubt myself sometimes.

...just check your booking by emailing or phonimg them, instead of asking the internet.
Then, no more doubt.

 

[CWBuff]

Safety in numbers, just do your bookings for 6/6, 7/7, 8/8....no worries.

You can improve this method by sleeping under a tent the 12 first days of each month, booking only from the 13th.

I was going to suggest the same but @Pafayac beat me to it. If you see anything like 2024-13-xx or xx-13-2024 you darn well know what that date is overall.
I remember when long time ago some folks were really "fancy" and they would do months in Roman numerals; some in their letters, diaries and what-have you went as far as do something like YY dd\mm in romans YY Today hence would be 20 03/V 24 (1800 here in US EST - the EU midnight just kicked in)

 

[JabbaPapa]

- YYYY-MM-DD, more oriented to business processing.

Behind the scenes FWIW, all time stamps in software are recorded YYYY MM DD HH mm ss (and possibly further divisions of seconds if needed by the software, and certainly financial software records but does not usually make use of at least 10ths and 100ths of seconds).

When I was still writing software, I did occasionally come across some 20th Century software and programming habits that recorded dates in different formats (in the files that is), which were always murder to work with, as you had to waste considerable time correcting everything to work properly, including in relation to potential Y2K bugs.

Anyway, online booking between the US and Europe will always have a potential for confusion, and that's not dissimilar to software environments where differently formatted dates needed to be mutually intelligible -- which is how the standard YYYY MM DD HH mm ss has replaced all previous formats. It can still be displayed from that format according to local norms, and those divergent displays and print-outs in RW terms may be just as confusing as they were in IT environments.

There's another potential source of confusion in English date formats, as the 4th of May and May the 4th are equally acceptable, in both the US and the British Isles.

 

[Kathar1na]

I have reserved a night in an Albergue and the confirmation says Fecha de entrada: 2024-06-05. In the UK we would write this as 05-06-2024, is that what this means, 5th June 2024, I am just checking as I think the USA write it differently.

Beyond the shadow of a doubt: When is says fecha de entrada and has been communicated to you from an albergue in Spain then 2024-06-05 means 5th June 2024.

Tip: You asked about communication of a date to you so this is about general communication: In English, when discussing dates for a meeting, I always include the name of the day of the week and write: Wednesday 5 June 2024.

And if you want to know how 5th June is written by some of your fellow European peregrin@s in the way they are are familiar with, drop it into www.deepl.com.

Spanish: 5 de junio​

French: 5 juin​

Danish: 5. juni or den 5. juni​

Whether de, dot, or no addition to the day's number, when a date is written in the long form, the day's number always comes first in these languages.

 

[Bedspring]

Beyond the shadow of a doubt: When is says fecha de entrada and has been communicated to you from an albergue in Spain then 2024-06-05 means 5th June 2024.

Tip: You asked about communication of a date to you so this is about general communication: In English, when discussing dates for a meeting, I always include the name of the day of the week and write: Wednesday 5 June 2024.

And if you want to know how 5th June is written by some of your fellow European peregrin@s in the way they are are familiar with, drop it into www.deepl.com.

Spanish: 5 de junio​

French: 5 juin​

Danish: 5. juni or den 5. juni​

Whether de, dot, or no addition to the day's number, when a date is written in the long form, the day's number always comes first in these languages.

Most helpful, thank you.

 

[joramos]

I believe Spain, particularly business transactions, uses the ISO standard/format calendar; most significant number (year/yyyy), next significant (month/mm), then day number (dd).

 

[pjacobi]

Welcome to Europe!

Now that you have discovered the European date format, now we can move on to a discussion of comma as decimal point, slashes in the number seven, and many other European cultural differences.

This is just the first of many lessons. You have lots to learn about Europe!


-Paul

 

[joramos]

Welcome to Europe!

Now that you have discovered the European date format, now we can move on to a discussion of comma as decimal point, slashes in the number seven, and many other European cultural differences.

This is just the first of many lessons. You have lots to learn about Europe!


-Paul

How about jacket zippers? Europe zippers are inserted rightie while leftie in US. Tylenol/Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) pills with 1000 mg each. Clothing product tags are almost a foot long, an inch maybe in US.

 

[Kathar1na]

Welcome to Europe!

Now that you have discovered the European date format, now we can move on to a discussion of comma as decimal point, slashes in the number seven, and many other European cultural differences.

This is just the first of many lessons. You have lots to learn about Europe!

@pjacobi: Please note that the OP @Bedspring is from the UK. It says so in the profile information and in the first post ("In the UK we would write").

We here on the Continent still regard the UK as part of Europe. Even when our common motto (it is "United in Diversity" - very appropriate albeit not widely known) ceased to be applicable to the OP's part of Europe since a few years ago ...

 

[Paul-CH]

Have you ever thought about using letters for the month. That’s what I did at Via Francigena. I translated the three months using from German to French and wrote it that way. No confusing at all.

 

[CWBuff]

We here on the Continent still regard the UK as part of Europe. Even when our common motto (it is "United in Diversity" - very appropriate albeit not widely known) ceased to be applicable to the OP's part of Europe since a few years ago ...

I'm not arguing, merely stating a fact. There should be no "we regard" since UK geographically IS Europe! Everything West of Ural mountains is Europe. Just because UK is no longer a member of EU it didn’t somehow physically and mystically got transported into a different realm

Have you ever thought about using letters for the month. That’s what I did at Via Francigena. I translated the three months using from German to French and wrote it that way. No confusing at all.

I think the issue here was not so much what OP wrote but what their confirmation said. As such, yeah, go tell the rest of the world how they should write stuff.... good luck

 

[Kathar1na]

I'm not arguing, merely stating a fact. There should be no "we regard" since UK geographically IS Europe!

Trust me, I am well aware of the discussions of where "Europe" ends and what the word "Europe" can stand for. The comment I made was obviously a bit tongue in cheek because @pjacobi (and others) may not be aware of the diversity and the fact that there is no such thing as a "European" date format - the sequence of the digits perhaps but not the format of the date in written form - see the use of dots, slashes, and other finer points of numerous differences. @pjacobi's post to which my reply referred started with the comment "Welcome to Europe" although the OP is from the UK!!!

Context, as always, is everything.

 

[trecile]

Just because UK is no longer a member of EU it didn’t somehow physically and mystically got transported into a different realm

Could be the plot of a fantasy novel. All of the UK moved to a different dimension (realm).

 

[Kathar1na]

merely stating a fact

I can't access the OED because I don't have an account. However, from what I see they have two definitions for "Europe". One is something like "a northern continent connected to Asia" and the other one is something like "the European Union and its predecessors". Has come into use since 1957.

British English.

I love merely stating a fact.

 

[CWBuff]

Bah! The 2nd one is wrong of course

 

[David Tallan]

Everything West of Ural mountains is Europe.

I don't consider where I am from part of Europe and it is certainly west of the Ural mountains. The UK is clearly not part of continental Europe, being islands. Where you want to draw the line in the ocean is a political decision. And, of course, we don't want to get into politics.

 

[CWBuff]

Of course not! B-b-but David, there IS no ocean between the Continent and the islands!

 

[Kathar1na]

Of course not! B-b-but David, there IS no ocean between the Continent and the islands!

Erm … there is. The part of the Atlantic Ocean that is known as La Manche and also as the English Channel is, well, part of the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[David Tallan]

Of course not! B-b-but David, there IS no ocean between the Continent and the islands!

I always thought that the water that laps against the shores of France and Belgium and the Netherlands was the Atlantic Ocean and there is no practical difference between that water and the water between the islands of the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. The English Channel is part of the Atlantic Ocean, so that's the ocean you seem to be missing.

Now do you consider St. Pierre and Miquelon (part of France) to be Europe or North America? What about Greenland and/or Iceland? As I said, once you leave the continent it is all about where you draw the line

 

[trecile]

I always thought that the water that laps against the shores of France and Belgium and the Netherlands was the Atlantic Ocean and there is no practical difference between that water and the water between the islands of the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.

Except for inland seas isn't all the water in all the oceans and seas connected?

 

[David Tallan]

Except for inland seas isn't all the water in all the oceans and seas connected?

That is also about where you draw the line.

 

[CWBuff]

the Channels is an ARM of Atlantic ocean, just an arm Ok seriously reckon I do have to apologize as I honestly did not think it was a part of AO; I always considered it as a "gulf" of a sort. Guess I am wrong

St. Pierre and Miquelon though is an archipelago which geographically belongs to North America continent. Politically, yes it is French but it is not a part of Europe in a geographical sense