If you spend more than five minutes in /r/whatsthatbook you'll end up

[conuly]

asking somebody "When did you read this book", and there are two annoying answers to this.

The first is "When I was younger". Yeah, no shit, everything you have already done you have done, by definition, when you were younger. (And if you want to avoid this answer you'll have to consistently use the somewhat silly phrase "calendar year" to ask this question. Annoyingly, the equally silly phrase "age in years" does very little to stop people from giving me their year/grade/stage at school instead, so I have to say "Age in years - that's your age, not year/grade/stage at school!" which makes me sound really pushy for no reason. There's a reason!)

The second is "Oh, it doesn't matter, the book was at least ten years old when I got it!"

And then you have to go back and explain to them that a book that was ten years old in 1960 is much older than one that was ten years old in 2020, so please - help us help you. Like, would it kill them to just answer the question? I genuinely have no idea why they do this. Why do people do this? Just, why?

Comments

[howsmyenglish]

Which, by the way, if you're 49 and literate enough to type that you ought to be literate enough not to type that and to instead make it make sense.
I agree. I'm a language teacher. Year after year I need to explain to the new students that "family" is singular despite there being several members in it. I hear you. *facepalm"

[conuly]

Hm. Are these students used to UK English? I believe that usage is standard on that side of the pond.

[howsmyenglish]

No, not at all.
But what do you mean?
English is far less infected that the languages I teach and teach in, so the difference would be less obvious, but do you actually mean phrases like "my family are abroad" or "my family like to dance? (as opposed to "is" and "likes"?) I don't think I ever noticed usage like that in literature, and I read a lot of British authors. Although... the more I reread those examples, the more they seem familiar... Hm...

[conuly]

but do you actually mean phrases like "my family are abroad" or "my family like to dance?

Yes, this is what I mean.

This is one of the better known differences between US and UK grammar.

[conuly]

Here's another link. I'm linking to this one in particular because I love that blog, both the posts and the comments.