Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Saying attained an age is just making it clear. People don't really understand that you turn one on your second birthday. Your first birthday is the day you are born.
Thus on your 30th birthday, you are 29 years old. Almost always you'll hear this used incorrectly.
If I ask you "What is your birthday?" Most people would respond January 1, 1990.
If I ask you "What was your first birthday?" Most people would respond January 1, 1991.
So is birthday the day you were born (as literal translation implies) or the anniversary of the say you were born?
If your birthday is the day you were born, which is pretty obvious, then it would be the only birthday you'd have. Anything following would be an anniversary. Still, even though the day you are born might be your birth day, you aren't one year old the day of your birth.
In Asia, the day of your birth marks the beginning of the first year, then reaches two at the completion of the first year which also marks the beginning of the second year. In thinking about it, I don't think I've ever heard anyone in Asia describe a six-month-old baby as being a one-year-old.
Umm what? When you are "one year old" it has been a year since you were born ... When you are "fifty years old" it has been fifty years since you were born.
What is the problem here?
Now if you ask how many birthdays have you had, this is one more than your chronological age.
It makes more sense to me to say, I'm X years old, up until another year has passed, which means I'm X+1 year old. On the other hand, my birth date is naturally going to be the day I was born. I don't confuse "birth date" with "birth day." :>
Umm what? When you are "one year old" it has been a year since you were born ... When you are "fifty years old" it has been fifty years since you were born.
What is the problem here?
Now if you ask how many birthdays have you had, this is one more than your chronological age.
In some rural areas, it is the custom to refer to very old people as "in her 94th year" instead of "93 years old". This is often seen in obituaries and funeral notices.
As for confusion in earlier posts, you do not become 20 years old until the hour of your birth on the day you celebrate your birthday. For example, if you were both at 2 pm on June 14, 1983, you do not become 20 years old until the middle of the afternoon on your birthday in 2013. Unless you allow for the fact that there was an intercalated day (February 29) in 1984, so in 1984 you actually became a year old (365 days) on June 13, and your first birthday was the 366th day of your life, making you a year and a day old on your birthday. A year is about 365-1/4 days long, so you need to keep allowing for those quarter-days in reckoning your age in terms of years.
Last edited by jtur88; 09-19-2011 at 10:31 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.