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Pedants' corner

Decimalisation of years

36 replies

Londonmrss · 03/02/2013 16:20

People on mumsnet like to day things like "My son is 2.7 years old."
Are they being incredibly precise and have worked out that their child is 2 years and 256 days, which happens to be 0.7 of a year? Or do they mean 2 years and 7 months and they have no understanding of what a decimal point is? This REALLY annoys me.

Phew. It felt good to finally say it.

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 16:24

Oooh I'm a newbie and I've been wondering this. I say 23 months or nearly 2. Writing 1.11 would just be wrong!

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Jux · 03/02/2013 16:41

I spent a long time wondering this a few years ago Grin but realsed - after a while - that life was too short.

Then I 'made a decision' that they meant 2 y 7m and didn't worry about it again (though every so often, I see it and do a mental double take).

FWIW, I suspect most don't do decimals. Watch out though, as I'm sure there are some that do, and if you get it wrong......

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Fenouille · 03/02/2013 16:44

I don't like it either but as it seems to be the standard way of expressing age on here I finally gave in today and used it for the first time while tutting at myself under my breath

But then I also work somewhere where people use 17.7inches and the like. That really does make me itch.

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AdriftAndOutOfStardust · 03/02/2013 16:56

calm down and lighten up a bit. I have plenty of advanced qualifications demonstrating that I am fully able to understand the proper use of the decimal point. However, this is just an online forum and most of us only have a few mins snatched from when we are supposed to be doing something more productive to write our posts so we have developed useful abbreviations. We know that 99% of the people who read what we type will know that when we write "3.7yo DS" we are referred to a darling son who is 3 years and 7 months old - it's an accepted shorthand and scientific accuracy isn't particularly important in this context. I would probably be happy to use the shorthand at 3.10yo but would agree that 3.11 might look a bit odd so would be more likely to write "nearly 4" for those 30 days.

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AMumInScotland · 03/02/2013 16:59

They are using the decimal point to denote "and some fraction", in the same way that people write 2.30 for a time - it isn't two hours and 0.3 of an hour, we all know what it means. In the case of time, it's a convention that you mean "and x 60ths" after what looks just like a decimal poin. On here it's a cnvention that it means "and x months".

Just one of the lovely ways in which language adapts Grin

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plantsitter · 03/02/2013 16:59

I have wondered this before. But if you say it's 10.33 you mean it's 33 minutes past 10 not 10 and a third. So I think of it like that (however I do try to advise using it in threads).

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 17:04

Surely it takes almost no longer (and is considerably more accurate) to type 2y4m than 2.4 though?

Ah well I expect I'll get used to it (and the obligatory D's) soon!

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AdriftAndOutOfStardust · 03/02/2013 17:11

Feel free to type 2y4m if you wish, no-one will moan or correct you. It's just that 2.4 would be understood to mean the same in a mumsnet context.
I promise that if I were writing an academic paper on some scientific subject requiring reference to the age of a small child I would use a different notation.

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Londonmrss · 03/02/2013 17:29

What if someone says 2.5 years? What do they mean?

I'm thinking a metric calendar and a metric clock would be easier for me to deal with. Now just need too change the gravitational pull off the sun etc...

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WMittens · 03/02/2013 21:15

If it's used in the context of 2y7m, it is not a decimal point, it is a* radix point and is correct notation. To be accurate it is a base-12 radix point; would that be called a dodecimal point?

*Or, another type of

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SanityClause · 03/02/2013 21:18

This is used by health professionals, not just on Mumsnet.

Perhaps you need to get out more? Wink

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Londonmrss · 03/02/2013 21:19

Fair point Sanity!

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CitrusyOne · 03/02/2013 21:24

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......

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MortifiedAdams · 03/02/2013 21:27

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.

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 21:29

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

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InMySpareTime · 03/02/2013 21:33

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.

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 22:14

Fair enough

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 22:17

Fair enough Smile

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 22:17

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

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Alibabaandthe40nappies · 03/02/2013 22:19

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

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Alibabaandthe40nappies · 03/02/2013 22:19

just^

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Londonmrss · 03/02/2013 22:59

this one goes to eleven...

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CaseyShraeger · 03/02/2013 23:08

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.

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CaseyShraeger · 03/02/2013 23:09

(or in technical publications)

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VinegarDrinker · 03/02/2013 23:39

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.

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