Please help settle an argument

[TheDogSitsHere]

If you ask someone to submit a report "by 12th June" would you expect that it would be submitted

a) on the 11th June or before
b) on the 12th June or before

Thanks 🙏

So to use your analogy, if an item of food said "use by the 12th June" then you wouldn't eat it after the 11th?

I’d happily eat it at any time on 12th (and maybe even on the 13th 🤣)

That would freak me out so I would either work with worst case scenario to have it done by end of 11th or ask them to clarify: by end of 11th or by end of 12th?

b

B.

Oh, and no, I don't leave things until the last minute. I'd probably usually be largely ready the day before, but that's just me. Ready by close of business on the day stated is also fine.

You can still eat the item until the end of the date that is on the packaging if a USE BY date, and even for a few days after if it's a BEST BEFORE date.

Does the use by date include that day? Yes, the food can be eaten before the expiration of the use by date. Keep in mind that when the packaging mentions instructions such as ‘eat within three days of opening’, it should still be eaten by the use by date, even if it has been open for less than three days

https://www.eufic.org/en/food-safety/article/best-before-use-by-and-sell-by-dates-explained?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgT5Mp0P7FZlU75Cr4A0CD3SabcfCm62aUB_C11cOLt7tY1cTvSk7gyBoCnUAQAvD_BwE

Anyway@TheDogSitsHere I'd say B, before the end of the 12th at the latest. If they wanted it before the 12th they should have said before the 12th.

No. A product wouldn't suddenly turn toxic at midnight on 11th if the best before date was 12th. Probably not even on 12th either.

Sniff it, look at it and feel it. If it smells, looks and feels fine then it usually is fine. I apply this to vegetables and fruit mostly. A bit more careful with meat.

put it another way, if they wanted it on the 11th, they would have requested BEFORE the 12th

Why is this an argument as long as it isn't after

They did say they wanted it before 12th as they said they wanted it by the 12th. If you were going on holiday, and the airline said you need to check in by 7pm, you wouldn't arrive at 7:59pm and say "I thought you meant by the close of the hour".

This

“By” pretty much universally means EOD on the date given in the business world. So “by 12th June” would be 5pm or whatever on the 12th. If they wanted it on the 11th they would have needed to say “by June 11th.” You don’t typically see people saying things like “before June 12th” because that’s just the 11th.

I wouldn’t be impressed with being lectured when they were the ones with poor communication. If you want something on the 11th then you say the 11th.

It's BBE - best before end of 11th so fine upto (and probably after) end of the 11th, not 10th.

Are they from a different country, they might have different ways of expressing time?

But 7.59pm is later than 7pm. You'd be upset if you got to check in at 7pm and it had closed!

As others have said "by" is not synonymous with "before"; the dictionary definition is "no later than"

No, he's not. Interestingly a colleague who has English as a 2nd language interpreted it the same way as I did though.

B

A

There's not argument really, but the 12th of June means the 12th of June.... pretty simple really

B

That is how I would read it too.

If someone said by 12th , I would probably give it in first thing on the 12th not wait until end of the day really.
But giving it in on the 12th wouldn't make it late so you shouldn't have been pulled up on it.

A. 12 June begins at one second past midnight on 12 June. So if it isn't in at that point then it isn't in 'by 12 June 'i.e the time that 12 June starts. Clearly I am in a very small minority though.😐

That’s not a good analogy though because 7pm is a single fixed point in time. 12th June spans a whole day so the debate is whether it should be before the beginning of the day or before the end of it.

I know what the other people are saying, and I agree that in the business world, it is often the way the majority have interpreted it. To take my example though, if someone said to me "you need to have it to me by the 12th" they'd probably receive it at 11:59pm on the 11th, thereby having received it by the 12th.

I do agree that whoever wanted it should have been specific.