DS aged 3.9 is stood on our gate …

[indurently]

He’s looking at cars, tractors and so on. We live on a country road. I’m pushing his sister on a swing.

And a couple just walked by and told me he shouldn’t be on the gate.

Racking my brains somewhat as to what we have done wrong!

In a way their concern for your DS is admirable though seems cautious.

Aged 3.9- even the late Sue Townsend measured in quarters.

Seconding a nomination for Classics.

Brilliant thread.

@DappledThings ( glory be to god for them ;)

No it is not a regional thing, you're right.

'I stood 'is a finished action in the past tense: I stood on the gate ând a stranger told me off.

I was standing: I was standing on the gate when the stranger told me off. ( continuous action in the past tense)

See the subtle difference?

'I was stood ' conflates the two and is wrong.

I know, I said that. Not sure why you're addressing that to me.

Aged 3.9- even the late Sue Townsend measured in quarters.

I think it was more that her 'intellectual but not very clever' creation gave his fractional age than that she herself would have done.

Oh my God this is hilarious @DickEmery you made me laugh so much, I feel the need to thank you 🤣

I don't own any gates so I will never have this problem.

Sorry @DappledThings - clumsy wording. I should have made it clear I was agreeing with you. The comment was meant more broadly. Apologies

Fair enough!

i think you'll find that it is only in Derbyshire that one can be tickled by a gate.
it used to occasionally happen in parts of Staffordshire too, but that all stopped with the civil war.
it has of course, never been done in London.

If you have something to say, @Malvala, please say it. Snidey digs do not show you in a good light. (By the way I cannot understand ???. Is it ? or ???? ??? doesn't make any sense to me.)

agreed.
and they will be further confused by the use of 'further' to relate to a measurable dimension.
i think the correct word here is
'farther'.

So tell me how 3yrs, 10mths is written in this decimal form that is annoyingly common on MN? Or 3yrs 11mths, how is that written?

It's so frustrating to see it in so many posts because there are 12 months in a year, not 10, so using decimals does not work!!

Someone says, my son is 3.5 - do they mean 3.5yrs old or do they mean this weird decimal point age that actually, no, they're not 3.5yrs, they are 3yrs 5mths. It's so ridiculous and doesn't make sense.

As for your HV doing it - that doesn't surprise me in the slightest, they're not exactly known for being the sharpest tools in the box.

Yes, it's common to use months with age of youngsters, but the normal way to write it is "my 3yr 9mths old", or "my almost 4yr old" - 3.9 isn't an age. It would only be an accurate way to describe an age if there were 10 months in the year!

Genuinely, who gives a flying fuck?

This is exactly why is makes no damn sense to use decimals for age though - because people haven't a clue what actual age they are from it. If it's so important for the age to be stated - at least then state it correctly, and not in some stupid way that seems to be rife online these days.

Only if they’re American

They're not using the dot to signify a decimal (i.e. ten), they're using it to separate the units - years and months.

Given it's referring to an age, the meaning is pretty clear - who knows their DC's age as a decimal, bar a half?

And given there are 12 months in a year and x/12 and x/10 are pretty similar, it doesn't actually matter if it's misunderstood.

I've seen this usage loads of times on MN and have never seen it called out before, I think OP has had a tough time because she's used <gasp> stood rather than standing which apparently opens her to (unjustified) nitpicking.

please Miss,
i quoted the wrong post.
sorry.
may i be excused, or should i stand in the corner ?

Or that.

I've seen this usage loads of times on MN & Facebook too and I've never called it out before, but you know what, this was the straw that broke the camels back!! It really irks me! If it's not to signify a decimal, then the people using it are too bloody lazy to use yr & mth which are short. Using a . is exceptionally lazy.

I've ignored the "stood" stuff, as where I'm from, we'd use stood too 😂

So you understood her meaning and were familiar with the usage?

No, I didn't, which is exactly why I questioned it at the start of the thread! I asked OP what 3.9 even meant as writing ages like this does not make any sense to me.

I said I've seen people write ages like this loads on MN & Facebook, but I've never bloody understood what it means. I thought this was clear from my many comments about this!!

Camel’s back*

Yes, thank you, was typing in a rush one handed and didn't check before posting!

It’s less than 4 and more than 3.

You don’t need to understand it beyond that. Although now you’ve had explained to you extensively, I hope you have grasped some understanding of it.