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Comment on Pi Day

4th OF July,

So date first, then the month?

You don’t read 1/2 as “1slash2” do you? You read it as “half”, don’t you? You don’t read 3/4 as “three four” do you? You read it as “three quarters” or “three fourths”.

Because we know how to conjugate numbers from context. Like say you finish 3. in a race. Would you read “3.” as “three” or “third”?

(It’s quite ironic how often I end up having to teach Americans English, lol.)

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I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

say you finish 3. in a race

Who would even type it that way? When talking about position, the suffix isn’t ignored, either in text or speech.

As for fractions, they are just that; fractions. Divisible portions of a whole, so different rules apply to them. They can be in the plural sense as in two halves, or 3 quarters. But you don’t have a plural dates of the month, unless you’re counting multiple years. And in that case it’s month first. Like, if you were comparing this year to other years, you wouldn’t say “this was better than the last couple 4ths of July”. You’d say, “this was better than the last couple of July 4ths”

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- Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Who would even type it that way?
  
  You’ve never seen people use ordinal numbers?
  
  Never seen rankings of say, hand-egg players, put down as
  
  Namenamename
  
  Namenamename
  
  Namenamename
  
  ?
  
  “Ordinal” as in “by order” rather than cardinal numbers. In the middle of a a sentence you’d write “third” preferably, but you might also use “3rd”. My grammatically wrong sentence was on purpose to demonstrate that you can — or at least should be able to — read ordinal numbers.
  
  Just like you’d read 04.06.24 as “the fourth of July, 2024”. Well, you wouldn’t, you’d read that “the sixth of April”, but only because you’re using the stupid system for dates.
  
  “as in two halves or 3 quarters”
  
  Why didn’t you write “three”? Were you omitting more letters because you knew I would be able to read “3” as “three”? Yes. Good. We do that for other numerals as well, and depending on the context, you add things like “of” in between them. Where’d you get the word “quarter” when I just wrote down “4”?
  
  Thus it’s fourth of July, not “four July”.
  
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  - GiveMemes@jlai.lu ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s not Grammer though? That has nothing to do with how the english language works and everything to do with a nebulous idea of understanding.
    
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    Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It is.
    
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar
    
    In linguistics, a grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics.
    
    “everything to do with a nebulous idea of understanding.”
    
    What do you think language is?
    
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