Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

In mainland Europe we only use the metric system, even when speaking or writing English.

Also it is common to stick to the comma as decimal separator and dot as thousands separator when writing English. This convention is independent of the language used.

Same goes for date notation, dd-mm-yyyy is used (almost) always.

In Windows or Linux for example you can select the English language with Dutch localisation. It's used by almost all software developers I know.




That's a good explanation, and actually what I thought might be going on (which is why I included that example in my original question). It's interesting, because like date formats, it can sometimes be ambiguous without sufficient context. Thanks for the explanation!


In the UK, we use dd-mm-yyyy anyway, and metric for most purposes. Only the decimal comma differs from normal non-American English usage.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: