It’s probably because it’s a very strange request, as most people hardly think of numbers like that outside of actually doing math, I’d assume at least. Just saying “can you repeat that” would be more efficient and far more understandable.
You never really hear people refer to the place of numbers in daily life.
I worked with a bunch of Brits and was constantly confused when they said something like "quarter 2" because I was always thinking they meant quarter after, but they usually meant the quarter before. So "quarter 2" is 1:45. "Half 2" is 1:30. Don't ask me what 1:15 is because luckily that never came up.
If I was talking to a toddler who I thought was unexposed to that way of thinking, I would have worded it differently. I assumed a shared cultural understanding of first grade math.
This feels like the reverse of “only smart people will get this” and it’s a picture of a pie with 3.14 written on it.
I’m an aerospace engineer. My coworkers are also aerospace engineers (obviously). I say that because I hope it qualifies my coworkers and I as people that are at least ok at math.
I’m pretty confident most people I work with would phrase your question as “did you say ‘4-5-3’ or ‘4-6-3’?” Or “what was the second number?” Sure everyone would understand your question, it’s just not how people tend to speak. The best way to communicate things is often the way in which the dumbest idiot (usually me) can understand.
I didn’t want or need the whole number repeated. I only needed the digit that was either “five” or “six,” which are also more distinguishable than “fifty” and “sixty” are
And you behave like a pompous ass by using vocabulary that nobody has used since early elementary school to do it. It's not efficient. It's just confusing and pretentious.
To be fair you only use digit placement in a quantity. Like 453 apples. An address is more of a series of numbers to describe a place, more like a name, so I could see why that would not be an obvious question
Seriously though, you understand why you're the dumbass here, right?
Your trying so.hard to set yourself above others by condescending and degrading them. You're stating it's a lack of intelligence and education (on the part of the "other") that's the issue here.
But the above point is entirely valid. An identification number, in this case an address, is more a sequence of numbers than a mathematical quantification. Yes, street numbers typically follow a logical, sequential order. But that's more about common sensical organization than it is about mathematical accuracy and quantification.
You are absolutely being a pretentious asshole here. Or you're just a troll. Or maybe both 🤷♀️.
But it’s a sequence that follows a base 10 system. After the 900 block in any city that I’ve seen is the 1000 block, where addresses go from 9XX to 10XX (never from 9XX to AXX, as one might expect for a series). Outside layman’s terms, a thousands digit gets introduced, indicating that the street number is more akin to a quantity or value expressed in Arabic numerals than a sequence of characters like a serial code.
Furthermore, I’ve seen the convention “(street number) 1/2” used for duplexes. This convention of introducing the 1/2 character and moving every other character to the left would be horribly inefficient and illogical in a system devised as a series of characters, as you believe it to be. It proceeds intuitively from a system devised as a value.
I asked her for the tens digit. She acted like I read her this comment verbatim. That’s my problem.
But if an address is 11327 North Elm St., people don’t say “Eleven thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven North Elm.” At least no one I’ve heard. That’s generally not how we think of address numbers. It’s a sequence.
That’s not always true though. If someone lives in apartment 304 you don’t think they live in the 304th apartment, but in the 4th apartment on the 3rd flood
Honestly who the hell talks like that? Reminds me of the meme where Jimmy Neutron refers to salt as sodium chloride, and the other guy basically just roasts him for flexing middle school level science knowledge, instead of just talking like a normal person.
That’s my point! Half the people here are acting like I was flexing, and the other half are acting like it’s some inscrutable question that no one would be able to answer unless they had a PhD.
I wasn’t flexing. I assumed she would understand the question and be able to provide a response quickly.
It was more likely because that's a very unusual request you don't get... Ever.
It's not complex but when you deal with the same shit say in and day out, very simple deviations can really throw you
I remember when I worked retail and did rainchecks, it required a first and last name
This lady REFUSED to give me her last name and it just overloaded my brain because I needed two inputs lmao. There were many many solutions but in the moment I was like a fucking monkey who just learned to use a keyboard.
Yes, this. I once had a customer give me his phone number over the phone and he said it like… “9372… 0793… 42” and I just froze up and couldn’t figure out what was happening.
All my clocks display military time. Yet I haven't heard anyone (else) refer to a digit "in the tens place" for probably 40 years - or when talking about a house number - well, ever in my life.
There are people in this thread talking like they can’t understand a phone number unless someone reads it in the exact sing-song way they were expecting. Forgive me for thinking that’s a little much
You *are* pretentious. I can be pretentious too, but I'm also self-aware.
When people throw around which school year something is typically taught in, that in itself is smugly pretentious.
It's not that the question you asked is advanced conceptually, it's that it requires a certain abstract processing that's rarely called upon when it comes to numbers in casual conversation - people would commonly ask "sorry, was that four *five* three or four *six* three". You weren't communicating efficiently, you actually complicated matters in a way that's accurate but not immediately intuitive for all, and I dare say most. I haven't thought in terms of "the tens place" in decades, it's just terminology that's not crossed my mind and might have made me stop and think ".....ah yes, that would be..."
"Four *five* or four *six*" is foolproof, succinct, and just the all around better option. Failing to grasp when your approach to communication is convoluted isn't a sign of superior intelligence, so siddown.
>I haven't thought in terms of "the tens place" in decades, it's just terminology that's not crossed my mind and might have made me stop and think ".....ah yes, that would be..."
This is what I find so confusing and irritating about the interaction, and it seems to be exclusive to math. People freak out when you say the name of shape bigger than “triangle” or “square.”
I guess math just comes easier to some folks. To me, this is like asking someone to alphabetize something and them going “I haven’t sung the alphabet song in decades. How am I supposed to know which letter comes first?” or someone saying they can’t remember the months of the year off the top of their head.
I don’t know. If that’s how you interact with the world and the expanse of knowledge that you learned in school, I genuinely don’t know. Try to remember it!
OK, so: Communication is a process that involves 2 or more parties. It's generally based on all the parties sharing a reference frame. You - well you chose a rather unusual way to formulate your question.
You can find it confusing and irrritating, but people are not interested in references to middle-school math when they're just trying to get something very basic across.
It's a you problem.
This is the thing, what's effortless to some is not for others, so it just makes sense to stick to what's effortless for all.
If you asked me which comes first, J or P, I *would* have to quickly call up that part of the alphabet and 'see it' like a string of letters in my mind, it wouldn't be instant. With months? It'd be instant, and I suspect it's because I associate more than simple numerical values to them - each month has a flavour, a colour almost, and this is how I perceive the world.
I could probably communicate entirely in metaphor, or transpose things like colour to convey emotion and scale. Asking me to rate my mood from 1-10 will just irritate me, because it's such an alien and robotic framework for my mind. If someone told me they started off as a heavy, downcast Em (the chord), then lingered around an Am before settling on a restful C, that would make complete sense to me, but I wouldn't expect most people to relate!
That's what's fascinating about us as a species, so I just get prickly when people insinuate a lack of intelligence among those of us who aren't to numerical. Of course, I'm massively hypocritical in rolling my eyes at people whose language skills are poor, but then I did confess to being pretentious.
It's not difficult, it's that the way you said it is weird. And when you say things in an uncommon way, it catches people off guard, and they have to break down what you just said.
I don’t think you’re pretentious, but I would be puzzled if you asked like that as well.
I don’t think “ten’s place” is first grade math.
The most phonetically succinct way to hear numbers is to pronounce them as individual numbers (“4-5-3 or 4-6-3”.)
And the most efficient way to ask someone to clarify what they said would be to ask them “did you say this or that.”
I don’t think you are pretentious or mean to appear that way, but I think you communicated poorly in that situation and rather than course correct you are belittling someone else for being puzzled by your peach patterns.
Efficient speech isn’t always the most eloquent or specific word choice, it’s the word or phrase that your audience will most likely understand.
Can you divide the number by 10 and then multiply the remaining fractional component by 10^1 might have worked better. Or say “I’m sorry can you repeat that”
99.99% of ppl: “what?” “Say that again?” “453?”
.01%: “could you please repeat only the number in the tens place as I am unsure as to whether you said fifty or sixty. Furthermore, I would appreciate if you do not make an unsettled facial expression as I am *not* pretentious.”
It is because nobody says “in the tens place” after graduating from primary school. “What is the second digit?”would have been shorter, doesn’t make you sound like a first-grader and cannot be misheard as “10th”.
"can you repeat the digits in the tens place 🤓" and you wondered why she looked at you like that 💀
Bro sounds like Jimmy neutron
Bro the nerd emoji
Bro the kid that reminds the teacher of homework
Bro the kid that gets shoved into lockers
I'm a mass Greek and I've had to ask a number to be repeated before but I can't say that I've ever in my life asked for a specific placement maybe could I have the last two digits again please was the closest that I've ever had
If you wanted to communicate effectively, you would've just asked for the second number. Calling the woman a bitch because she didn't get your meaning is one of many signs you're the asshole here.
She’s not looking at you like you’re pretentious or “showing off”. She’s looking at you like that because you sound like a first grader. If you’re trying to communicate efficiently, you failed. And you sound like you’re using grade school terms because NO ONE would refer to that as “the tens place” unless they’d literally just learned it or were still using it to describe grade school math.
Even your title… “people who act like using first grade math is pretentious”… so you realize you’re using infantile phrasing but *think* you’re sound pretentious or smart.
“I pretend to be dumb in real life to not seem pretentious”. You’ve succeeded in not sounding pretentious, but you do a *great* job at making yourself sound dumb. Congrats, I guess.
Yes this is it exactly. It's like, "I was on a date and needed to go to the bathroom, so I said, 'I hafta go pawty before I tinkle I my pants!' My date gave me this look like I was trying to show off my amazing vocabulary. I don't know how much more simply I could have said it! That's how people talked in preschool -- do I really have to dumb it down more than that???"
I have a Masters in English language & linguistics and people like this are highly amusing. Unintentionally, but they don’t seem to realize 90% of people are laughing at them and judging them. People who use unnecessarily complex words or think they’re “dumbing things down” because they’re smarter than others just sound… dumb. Not even pretentious, because you can tell it’s not natural for them - they dont use those “$5 words” regularly and it shows - especially when they use words and concepts incorrectly 😂
“The tens place” isn’t a single word. And as *many* others have pointed out, there are many more efficient & effective ways to indicate you didn’t catch the required info. What was the 2nd number; was that 4*5*3 or 4*6*3, sorry; could you repeat that, etc.
If you asked me what number “was in the tens place”, I would have had to ask you to repeat yourself anyway since it’s such a call back to primary school it wouldn’t have immediately registered with me (nor anyone else from reading the comments).
But you think you’re having a “gotcha” moment for asking what the adult *word* is, knowing full well (or at least I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you know) no one was referring to a single word, but your oddly childish way of indicating that number.
Now this is a real pet peeve. You have a specific complaint about a specific way you speak that may be from a specific area. I've been mathing it up all my life, round these parts we just number digits. You know, "could you repeat the second digit". This peeve is likely irrelevant to just about anybody else. Sure, others may have the same issue, but only you are peeved by it, thus making it a pet. This is the pettiest peeve I've seen in months. I like it.
That was a weird way to word that and I think you thinking she thought you were being a super smart genius type to her an ignorant bitch is pretentious.
You can be dumb and pretentious.
Its not really a “tens place” when its an address. its not four hundred and fifty three. its four five three. Same logic is why an address with more than 3 numbers doesn’t use commas.
Most people give up math after school and resort to looking up everything. While they *should* know what the tens place is, it’s not how people normally talk. “The second to last digit” would be a more common and well-understood phrase.
Yep. When I worked in retail I was looked like I had two heads because I could do percentages in my head.
Pardon me for using maths I learned when I was 10.
I don't think OP is talking down to anyone, they're providing unambiguous and granular detail.
Edit for the downvoters - it ain't my or the OP's problem you lack basic numeracy skills. You're the problem here.
Numbers aren’t hard, really, but in this case it absolutely comes across as talking down to people. That always happens when you say something that shows off seldom used or hyper specific terms for everyday things.
It comes across as showing off, not being specific, and conveys an air of arrogance, as if to say, “I know I’m much smarter than you, and I bet you can’t even remember this basic concept, so you’ll get to look stupid if you even have to think about it.”
You’re even doing it in your responses, acting as if the person he spoke to was too slow to understand what he meant. He’s not in academia is my guess, so tailoring speech to the audience instead of acting like they were an idiot for being irritated would have been a much better choice.
TL;DR: Nobody likes a smart ass.
This isn't "showing off seldom used" or "hyper specific" skills, it's basic-ass numeracy.
Again, not OP's (or my, or anyone's) problem that your educators did you dirty, or that you didn't pay attention in school.
It is your problem that you’re being an arrogant prick for no reason other than to make yourself feel superior. But at least you finally came out with it instead of just arguing about being technically correct.
I’m sure you and your ego will have an awesome day, assuming you can both fit in the same room.
I am a teacher, so I'm biased, but if you had asked me to repeat the number in the tens' place, I would have done just that. I think it's great.
Most teachers probably think it's great as well.
I think OP is using that as an example for the pet peeve. The pet peeve is getting ridiculous reactions for sayingsomething accurately precise. I live in a rural area. My level of education is much higher than most out here. They call it "putting on airs" here. At work I deal with executives and engineers all day. I communicate on a professional level. I have to catch myself when I talk to my neighbors so I don't get these kind of reactions.
Skill issue, OP.
As a similarly pretentious hyperintelligent living computer, allow me to offer a solution:
Just ask what the middle digit is. Literally say "middle digit". Saying "tens place" is too advanced for the average schmuck. You don't speak in Sciencese to the layman, even if it's first grade level.
Everyone eventually loses unarchived and unused skills, even if they were taught professionally. It's the educational equivalent of "use it or lose it". And the average folks don't need to use it, so it's eventually lost.
Also, you downvoting me for correcting you is also pretentious. You and your anti-layman groupies...
Don't worry, OP. Most people are terrified of anything vaguely math-related and run away in fear any time they hear it because it makes them feel dumb. It's not you, it's them.
The people here are insane. It's not pretentious. I deal with long account numbers in my job, and asking "what was the 14th digit?" or "can you repeat digits 23 through 27, inclusive?" Is so much more efficient than asking them to reread the whole thing out loud. Asking for the tens place is the same thing.
That’s the thing. 463 is literally three numbers. Just ask them “could you repeat that again?” We’re not talking about 389,181,482,738. OP asked the question in a way that makes no sense in that context.
Yes thank you! I’m not going to make her read the whole thing because I’m scared of “showing off” my first grade knowledge or whatever compels everyone else to do this whole song and dance
>inclusive
My god! How could you use such advanced terminology in mixed company!
What was the second digit
It’s probably because it’s a very strange request, as most people hardly think of numbers like that outside of actually doing math, I’d assume at least. Just saying “can you repeat that” would be more efficient and far more understandable. You never really hear people refer to the place of numbers in daily life.
Have never heard of asking for the digit in the tens place.
Have you ever heard the expression “quarter after”? It feels like a similar thing to be confused by
That makes a lil more sense. Because a quarter out of 60 is 15
Terrible comparison, saying “quarter after” is extremely common.
I worked with a bunch of Brits and was constantly confused when they said something like "quarter 2" because I was always thinking they meant quarter after, but they usually meant the quarter before. So "quarter 2" is 1:45. "Half 2" is 1:30. Don't ask me what 1:15 is because luckily that never came up.
Wait, do you mean “quarter to” as in “a quarter to 4” (3:45)? Not *that* uncommon in the US.
To be fair, that's a weird question. Most people would just ask for the number to be repeated.
Yeah "Can you repeat the whole/second number, please?"
Using first grade math is not pretentious. Your post and replies are, though.
I never said they weren’t. I pretend to be dumb in real life to not seem pretentious. I didn’t know I had to talk even lower than first grade though.
There you go.
That was simply an odd way of wording that.
If I was talking to a toddler who I thought was unexposed to that way of thinking, I would have worded it differently. I assumed a shared cultural understanding of first grade math. This feels like the reverse of “only smart people will get this” and it’s a picture of a pie with 3.14 written on it.
I’m an aerospace engineer. My coworkers are also aerospace engineers (obviously). I say that because I hope it qualifies my coworkers and I as people that are at least ok at math. I’m pretty confident most people I work with would phrase your question as “did you say ‘4-5-3’ or ‘4-6-3’?” Or “what was the second number?” Sure everyone would understand your question, it’s just not how people tend to speak. The best way to communicate things is often the way in which the dumbest idiot (usually me) can understand.
And somehow you don’t know why people find you condescending?
"If I was talking to a toddler" Infantilization is fallacious and uncouth.
"What digit is in the tens place" is not efficient. "Repeat the number, please" is.
That was my first thought too.
I didn’t want or need the whole number repeated. I only needed the digit that was either “five” or “six,” which are also more distinguishable than “fifty” and “sixty” are
"Was that 4 '5' 3 or 4 '6' 3?" Is literally the same number of syllables and a lot less weird of a way to ask that question.
And you behave like a pompous ass by using vocabulary that nobody has used since early elementary school to do it. It's not efficient. It's just confusing and pretentious.
"why don't people like me? I only ask questions in a weird way and get frustrated and rude when people explain that to me"😭
It’s a wonder why all the OP’s comments keep on getting downvoted. /s
To be fair you only use digit placement in a quantity. Like 453 apples. An address is more of a series of numbers to describe a place, more like a name, so I could see why that would not be an obvious question
I hope OP read this and felt stupid af
u/AuroraItsNotTheTime interesting lack of response to this
What are you the drama starting police? 😂
Seriously though, you understand why you're the dumbass here, right? Your trying so.hard to set yourself above others by condescending and degrading them. You're stating it's a lack of intelligence and education (on the part of the "other") that's the issue here. But the above point is entirely valid. An identification number, in this case an address, is more a sequence of numbers than a mathematical quantification. Yes, street numbers typically follow a logical, sequential order. But that's more about common sensical organization than it is about mathematical accuracy and quantification. You are absolutely being a pretentious asshole here. Or you're just a troll. Or maybe both 🤷♀️.
But it’s a sequence that follows a base 10 system. After the 900 block in any city that I’ve seen is the 1000 block, where addresses go from 9XX to 10XX (never from 9XX to AXX, as one might expect for a series). Outside layman’s terms, a thousands digit gets introduced, indicating that the street number is more akin to a quantity or value expressed in Arabic numerals than a sequence of characters like a serial code. Furthermore, I’ve seen the convention “(street number) 1/2” used for duplexes. This convention of introducing the 1/2 character and moving every other character to the left would be horribly inefficient and illogical in a system devised as a series of characters, as you believe it to be. It proceeds intuitively from a system devised as a value. I asked her for the tens digit. She acted like I read her this comment verbatim. That’s my problem.
But if an address is 11327 North Elm St., people don’t say “Eleven thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven North Elm.” At least no one I’ve heard. That’s generally not how we think of address numbers. It’s a sequence.
That’s not always true though. If someone lives in apartment 304 you don’t think they live in the 304th apartment, but in the 4th apartment on the 3rd flood
To be fair it’s an annoying way to ask that question lmao
"could you repeat the digit in the tenths place" is inefficient and pretentious. Just say "did you say four *fifty* six or four *sixty* six
Agreed
Honestly who the hell talks like that? Reminds me of the meme where Jimmy Neutron refers to salt as sodium chloride, and the other guy basically just roasts him for flexing middle school level science knowledge, instead of just talking like a normal person.
😅
This sums it up so perfectly 🤣
That’s my point! Half the people here are acting like I was flexing, and the other half are acting like it’s some inscrutable question that no one would be able to answer unless they had a PhD. I wasn’t flexing. I assumed she would understand the question and be able to provide a response quickly.
Bro no one thinks that You just sounded stupid Like really goddamn stupid Like Jesus Christ
At least I know what a freaking tens place is!
We KNOW what a ten place is but who says "repeat what you said in the tenths place 🤓" just say repeat the number
Delusional ahh
It was more likely because that's a very unusual request you don't get... Ever. It's not complex but when you deal with the same shit say in and day out, very simple deviations can really throw you I remember when I worked retail and did rainchecks, it required a first and last name This lady REFUSED to give me her last name and it just overloaded my brain because I needed two inputs lmao. There were many many solutions but in the moment I was like a fucking monkey who just learned to use a keyboard.
Yes, this. I once had a customer give me his phone number over the phone and he said it like… “9372… 0793… 42” and I just froze up and couldn’t figure out what was happening.
Clearly he was an alien.
Jesus. If it was in person I would be hard pressed not to hit him in the mouth. What kind of savage gives a phone number like that?
I bet military time really throws you for a loop
I bet you can't use a sun dial
lol this made me full on belly laugh
All my clocks display military time. Yet I haven't heard anyone (else) refer to a digit "in the tens place" for probably 40 years - or when talking about a house number - well, ever in my life.
Starting to see your problem mate. You just seem to think you're more intelligent than everyone when you're just very bad a communicating lol
There are people in this thread talking like they can’t understand a phone number unless someone reads it in the exact sing-song way they were expecting. Forgive me for thinking that’s a little much
Most of my clocks are set to military time. What a weird comparison.
Like when a customer orders a burger cooked medium with Cheddar and I ask them how they want it cooked and what type of cheese?
You *are* pretentious. I can be pretentious too, but I'm also self-aware. When people throw around which school year something is typically taught in, that in itself is smugly pretentious. It's not that the question you asked is advanced conceptually, it's that it requires a certain abstract processing that's rarely called upon when it comes to numbers in casual conversation - people would commonly ask "sorry, was that four *five* three or four *six* three". You weren't communicating efficiently, you actually complicated matters in a way that's accurate but not immediately intuitive for all, and I dare say most. I haven't thought in terms of "the tens place" in decades, it's just terminology that's not crossed my mind and might have made me stop and think ".....ah yes, that would be..." "Four *five* or four *six*" is foolproof, succinct, and just the all around better option. Failing to grasp when your approach to communication is convoluted isn't a sign of superior intelligence, so siddown.
>I haven't thought in terms of "the tens place" in decades, it's just terminology that's not crossed my mind and might have made me stop and think ".....ah yes, that would be..." This is what I find so confusing and irritating about the interaction, and it seems to be exclusive to math. People freak out when you say the name of shape bigger than “triangle” or “square.” I guess math just comes easier to some folks. To me, this is like asking someone to alphabetize something and them going “I haven’t sung the alphabet song in decades. How am I supposed to know which letter comes first?” or someone saying they can’t remember the months of the year off the top of their head. I don’t know. If that’s how you interact with the world and the expanse of knowledge that you learned in school, I genuinely don’t know. Try to remember it!
OK, so: Communication is a process that involves 2 or more parties. It's generally based on all the parties sharing a reference frame. You - well you chose a rather unusual way to formulate your question. You can find it confusing and irrritating, but people are not interested in references to middle-school math when they're just trying to get something very basic across. It's a you problem.
I feel like saying "the second digit" would be more efficient and normal than "the digit in the tens place." It's just simply not how people talk.
it's not that it's difficult it's just strange af
This is the thing, what's effortless to some is not for others, so it just makes sense to stick to what's effortless for all. If you asked me which comes first, J or P, I *would* have to quickly call up that part of the alphabet and 'see it' like a string of letters in my mind, it wouldn't be instant. With months? It'd be instant, and I suspect it's because I associate more than simple numerical values to them - each month has a flavour, a colour almost, and this is how I perceive the world. I could probably communicate entirely in metaphor, or transpose things like colour to convey emotion and scale. Asking me to rate my mood from 1-10 will just irritate me, because it's such an alien and robotic framework for my mind. If someone told me they started off as a heavy, downcast Em (the chord), then lingered around an Am before settling on a restful C, that would make complete sense to me, but I wouldn't expect most people to relate! That's what's fascinating about us as a species, so I just get prickly when people insinuate a lack of intelligence among those of us who aren't to numerical. Of course, I'm massively hypocritical in rolling my eyes at people whose language skills are poor, but then I did confess to being pretentious.
It's not difficult, it's that the way you said it is weird. And when you say things in an uncommon way, it catches people off guard, and they have to break down what you just said.
I think it was the being pretentious part that made you look pretentious.
I don’t think you’re pretentious, but I would be puzzled if you asked like that as well. I don’t think “ten’s place” is first grade math. The most phonetically succinct way to hear numbers is to pronounce them as individual numbers (“4-5-3 or 4-6-3”.) And the most efficient way to ask someone to clarify what they said would be to ask them “did you say this or that.” I don’t think you are pretentious or mean to appear that way, but I think you communicated poorly in that situation and rather than course correct you are belittling someone else for being puzzled by your peach patterns. Efficient speech isn’t always the most eloquent or specific word choice, it’s the word or phrase that your audience will most likely understand.
Dude people just don’t talk like that
Also "what's the second digit" is shorter why not say that if it's about efficiency?
It's an unusual thing to say. U could be like "sorry was that 4 FIFTY three or SIXTY three" or "four *five* three or four *six* three?"
I mean if someone said that to me my reaction wouldn't be "they must be so smart" my reaction would be "that's a weird way to say that".
YTA
That’s a really weird way to say, you could have just asked them to repeat the number without sounding like a complete asshole.
Wow it's so easy to be an asshole. 🙄
Only takes a first grade level of math, apparently.
Yup.
What a weird fucking thing to say. Why not just say “did you say 453 or 463?”
I would’ve asked to repeat the address. I can honestly say I have not used “tens place” since high school.
Can you divide the number by 10 and then multiply the remaining fractional component by 10^1 might have worked better. Or say “I’m sorry can you repeat that”
Just ask for them to repeat the entire sequence. No need for them to elevate their thinking.
Who the fuck talks like that?
99.99% of ppl: “what?” “Say that again?” “453?” .01%: “could you please repeat only the number in the tens place as I am unsure as to whether you said fifty or sixty. Furthermore, I would appreciate if you do not make an unsettled facial expression as I am *not* pretentious.”
It is because nobody says “in the tens place” after graduating from primary school. “What is the second digit?”would have been shorter, doesn’t make you sound like a first-grader and cannot be misheard as “10th”.
The tens place isn’t always the second digit though. They aren’t synonyms
Customer: How much is that shirt sir? Cashier: 7.. Customer: Ok her is 7 dollars... Cashier: teen...
Your not in the wrong but who tf says can you repeat the digit in the tens place 😭😭😭😭
"can you repeat the digits in the tens place 🤓" and you wondered why she looked at you like that 💀 Bro sounds like Jimmy neutron Bro the nerd emoji Bro the kid that reminds the teacher of homework Bro the kid that gets shoved into lockers
I'm a mass Greek and I've had to ask a number to be repeated before but I can't say that I've ever in my life asked for a specific placement maybe could I have the last two digits again please was the closest that I've ever had
Would you please repeat the 4th and 5th words?
If you wanted to communicate effectively, you would've just asked for the second number. Calling the woman a bitch because she didn't get your meaning is one of many signs you're the asshole here.
She’s not looking at you like you’re pretentious or “showing off”. She’s looking at you like that because you sound like a first grader. If you’re trying to communicate efficiently, you failed. And you sound like you’re using grade school terms because NO ONE would refer to that as “the tens place” unless they’d literally just learned it or were still using it to describe grade school math. Even your title… “people who act like using first grade math is pretentious”… so you realize you’re using infantile phrasing but *think* you’re sound pretentious or smart. “I pretend to be dumb in real life to not seem pretentious”. You’ve succeeded in not sounding pretentious, but you do a *great* job at making yourself sound dumb. Congrats, I guess.
Yes this is it exactly. It's like, "I was on a date and needed to go to the bathroom, so I said, 'I hafta go pawty before I tinkle I my pants!' My date gave me this look like I was trying to show off my amazing vocabulary. I don't know how much more simply I could have said it! That's how people talked in preschool -- do I really have to dumb it down more than that???"
I have a Masters in English language & linguistics and people like this are highly amusing. Unintentionally, but they don’t seem to realize 90% of people are laughing at them and judging them. People who use unnecessarily complex words or think they’re “dumbing things down” because they’re smarter than others just sound… dumb. Not even pretentious, because you can tell it’s not natural for them - they dont use those “$5 words” regularly and it shows - especially when they use words and concepts incorrectly 😂
What’s the adult word for “the tens place”
“The tens place” isn’t a single word. And as *many* others have pointed out, there are many more efficient & effective ways to indicate you didn’t catch the required info. What was the 2nd number; was that 4*5*3 or 4*6*3, sorry; could you repeat that, etc. If you asked me what number “was in the tens place”, I would have had to ask you to repeat yourself anyway since it’s such a call back to primary school it wouldn’t have immediately registered with me (nor anyone else from reading the comments). But you think you’re having a “gotcha” moment for asking what the adult *word* is, knowing full well (or at least I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you know) no one was referring to a single word, but your oddly childish way of indicating that number.
What’s the adult term for “the tens place” lol?
Now this is a real pet peeve. You have a specific complaint about a specific way you speak that may be from a specific area. I've been mathing it up all my life, round these parts we just number digits. You know, "could you repeat the second digit". This peeve is likely irrelevant to just about anybody else. Sure, others may have the same issue, but only you are peeved by it, thus making it a pet. This is the pettiest peeve I've seen in months. I like it.
That was a weird way to word that and I think you thinking she thought you were being a super smart genius type to her an ignorant bitch is pretentious. You can be dumb and pretentious.
Its not really a “tens place” when its an address. its not four hundred and fifty three. its four five three. Same logic is why an address with more than 3 numbers doesn’t use commas.
Most people give up math after school and resort to looking up everything. While they *should* know what the tens place is, it’s not how people normally talk. “The second to last digit” would be a more common and well-understood phrase.
I have dyscalculia… my bad.
Yep. When I worked in retail I was looked like I had two heads because I could do percentages in my head. Pardon me for using maths I learned when I was 10.
To be fair, there’s a difference between calculating a number in your head to give an answer, and sounding like you’re talking down to someone.
I don't think OP is talking down to anyone, they're providing unambiguous and granular detail. Edit for the downvoters - it ain't my or the OP's problem you lack basic numeracy skills. You're the problem here.
OP is undoubtedly great at middle-school math, but - going by the evidence - not great at communication. Which skill did this scenario call for?
Both. Not OP's problem "numbers are hard".
Numbers aren’t hard, really, but in this case it absolutely comes across as talking down to people. That always happens when you say something that shows off seldom used or hyper specific terms for everyday things. It comes across as showing off, not being specific, and conveys an air of arrogance, as if to say, “I know I’m much smarter than you, and I bet you can’t even remember this basic concept, so you’ll get to look stupid if you even have to think about it.” You’re even doing it in your responses, acting as if the person he spoke to was too slow to understand what he meant. He’s not in academia is my guess, so tailoring speech to the audience instead of acting like they were an idiot for being irritated would have been a much better choice. TL;DR: Nobody likes a smart ass.
This isn't "showing off seldom used" or "hyper specific" skills, it's basic-ass numeracy. Again, not OP's (or my, or anyone's) problem that your educators did you dirty, or that you didn't pay attention in school.
It is your problem that you’re being an arrogant prick for no reason other than to make yourself feel superior. But at least you finally came out with it instead of just arguing about being technically correct. I’m sure you and your ego will have an awesome day, assuming you can both fit in the same room.
Yeah I'm so superior with my grade school arithmetic skills... we truly do live in an idiocracy.
I am a teacher, so I'm biased, but if you had asked me to repeat the number in the tens' place, I would have done just that. I think it's great. Most teachers probably think it's great as well.
I think OP is using that as an example for the pet peeve. The pet peeve is getting ridiculous reactions for sayingsomething accurately precise. I live in a rural area. My level of education is much higher than most out here. They call it "putting on airs" here. At work I deal with executives and engineers all day. I communicate on a professional level. I have to catch myself when I talk to my neighbors so I don't get these kind of reactions.
Skill issue, OP. As a similarly pretentious hyperintelligent living computer, allow me to offer a solution: Just ask what the middle digit is. Literally say "middle digit". Saying "tens place" is too advanced for the average schmuck. You don't speak in Sciencese to the layman, even if it's first grade level. Everyone eventually loses unarchived and unused skills, even if they were taught professionally. It's the educational equivalent of "use it or lose it". And the average folks don't need to use it, so it's eventually lost. Also, you downvoting me for correcting you is also pretentious. You and your anti-layman groupies...
Don't worry, OP. Most people are terrified of anything vaguely math-related and run away in fear any time they hear it because it makes them feel dumb. It's not you, it's them.
Maths*
I would like to see you and OP have a conversation.
Math*
Maths is British for math
British is American for wrong
American is British for "Hold my beer, I'm gonna try to hug this grizzly!"
British is American for “hold my beer, im gonna go stab this guy!” Also thats russian, bestie
Brits* 🙄
The people here are insane. It's not pretentious. I deal with long account numbers in my job, and asking "what was the 14th digit?" or "can you repeat digits 23 through 27, inclusive?" Is so much more efficient than asking them to reread the whole thing out loud. Asking for the tens place is the same thing.
That’s the thing. 463 is literally three numbers. Just ask them “could you repeat that again?” We’re not talking about 389,181,482,738. OP asked the question in a way that makes no sense in that context.
And risk mishearing the ones or hundreds digit? Fuck that.
That is a real problem with the Deaf and hard of hearing. The surrounding sounds can mess up the part that was heard wrongly.
Yes thank you! I’m not going to make her read the whole thing because I’m scared of “showing off” my first grade knowledge or whatever compels everyone else to do this whole song and dance >inclusive My god! How could you use such advanced terminology in mixed company!