Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
The now ultra-common usage of "whenever", when they actually mean "when".
I can't fucking stand it. But it's everywhere now. I have no idea how it got so common but I'm surrounded by people who use it incorrectly.
I wonder if I’m using it incorrectly now.
We can go to the cinema whenever you like.
That is how I would use it. And I would use when like, when did you go to the cinema?
You've used it correctly! An incorrect usage would be:
"Whenever I go to the cinema, I get popcorn."
Huh…
I would use that too, so I decided to search it up and this is what I found.
When is used for a specific time or single occurrences.
Whenever is used for repeated events or entries with uncertain dates or times.
So your example seems like it should be whenever, as it’s not talking about a specific time but more every time they go.
You're correct that it's not grammatically wrong, but a subtle semantic mis-match. Let's bring in the difference between "every time" and "whenever". While "when" and "every time" are interchangeable, "whenever" and "every time" are not. "Every time" is exact and without fail, while "whenever" implies unpredictability or indifference to the exact location.
"When (strongly implied every time) I go to the theater (exact location), I get popcorn."
"Every time (explicitly) I go to the theater (exact location), I get popcorn."
"Whenever (unpredictable, indifferent) I go to the theater (exact location -mismatch with unpredictability) I get popcorn"
Does that make sense?
That explanation makes logical sense, but honestly I suck at spelling and grammar. I also feel like a lot of it is location and setting dependant and people interpret things in different ways.