Mumsnet Talk

If I write that I am 5'11 tall, are you upset that I am using an apostrophe? Or do you realise that it's just an indicator of " 5 somethings and 11 something-elses"?

Just testing Mittens.

And people wondered why we bought in SI units.

Was it because they were on special offer?

And people wondered why we bought in SI units.

Thanks WMittens - I stand corrected.

In this case the . is a demarcation, not a decimal point. Just as imperial uses 5'5", for example.

A year clearly is not base ten but base 12 so I don't mind someone writing 3.11 or whatever as we all know what they mean.

somebloke123

There were still 12 months, but they were 30 days each, and contained 3 10-day weeks.

I suppose if the calendar brought in after the French Revolution had prevailed there wouldn't be this problem. They divided the year into 10 months. The only one whose name I can remember is Thermidor.

In Early Years literature, it does go up to 11.
The EYFS (and more recently Development Matters) are more likely to use "35 months" as it fits their age banded groups better, but the training literature case studies would say "2.11"

For me, saying 35 + 4. about pregnancy length implies '35 weeks plus 4 days' so I can handle that. Saying 2.7 years implies '2 point 7 years' and I immediately, without even thinking about it, begin to try and work out what 0.7 of a year is.

It is obviously a personal taste thing in that case. Some of you have given legitimate and rational arguments as to why it is not in fact incorrect, but frankly I still find it annoying.

It's like when I get my baby weighed and they tell me she is 6kg, but then someone asks me what that is in lb. I know that there are 2.2lb in a kg so it's easy enough to work out that she is 13.2lb. But then they assume I mean 13lb2oz which is obviously not true.
Does it matter?- I hear you ask! Obviously not, I probably should get out more. Maybe I am some sort of numbers genius / crazy person like that John Nash fellow. Our possibly just a sleep-deprived mother of a 3 month old...

Well 37+5 is acceptable and commonly used medical abbreviation (except it should be 37+5/40), so not exactly the same as using DH!

And I have learned this evening that 2.6 etc is apparently accepted and in common usage in early childhood education academic circles. Every day is a school day.

(or in technical publications)

It's no different from using the notation DC, DD, DS or DH, IMO (oh, there's another one), or writing 37+5 to refer to stage of pregnancy (are you going to start another thread to the effect of "Are they '43 pregnant' or do they have no understanding of what a plus sign means?"?). You wouldn't do it in normal speech or writing, but it's fine on the Internet.

this one goes to eleven...

just^

This used to annoy me when I first joined MN, but have taken to using it jut for ease.

InMySpareTime meant to ask, in thqt usage does it go up to 2.11?

Fair enough

Fair enough

I used it a lot in my BA in Early Years, it is the current shorthand way childcare professionals denote child ages, certainly in all the literature I read for the course.

Sanity I've never seen it prior to MN and am a HCP (though not in paeds)

I use 1.1 to mean DD is one year and one month old. I don't think of it as a decimal point, more as an implied indication of "years and months".

And I would much rather see someone refer to their son as 3.3 than 39 months which I do think is a bit wankerish.

Re: time, I always thought it was a : not a .

So 2:30, not 2.30

Meaning 30 minutes past two?

Rather than a decimal point......

Fair point Sanity!