----- Original Message -----
From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
> Muke Tever wrote:
> > Actually zero in ages is rare. A newborn child usually gets its age in
> > weeks or months; instead of 'The child is zero years old' you get
something
> > like 'The child is five months old.'
>
> Right, but "one year old" means "beginning of second year".
"X years old" means "has lived through X entire years". It implies that
you're in the X++th year though...
> I seem to
> remember reading that in China (?), newborns were counted as "1". "Five
> months old" is basically like saying "zero years, five months old", just
> as one might say "One year, six months".
Still, for a baby one usually goes up to about "eighteen months".. (or was
that weeks?)
_Now_ one can say it's "zero years, five months", but that's not really
natural idiom. A baby may _be_ zero years old but it's just not really
English to say so (that I'm aware of).
> > (Didn't think it was a blunder...)
>
> Sorry, the article said that, I should've mentioned that.
No problem...
*Muke!
--
"I don't play hooky--I work very hard at it."
http://i.am/muke AIM: MukeTurtle FM: Muke ICQ: 1936556