from .... to(inclusive)

[panicmonger]

Your stint starts from May to September.
Your stint starts from May to September inclusive.

If the preposition "to" has the sense of inclusion, may I know the reason why sometimes the word "inclusive" is put at the end of the sentence?

Thank you very much indeed again...

 

[Rover_KE]

Your sentences need to be rephrased.

'Your stint starts in May and ends in September.'

'Your stint is from May to September inclusive.'

Even then, they are not precise enough.

You need to stipulate the dates more clearly:

'Your stint is from 1st May to 30th September.'

'Your stint is the months of May to September inclusive.'

Inclusive means including both of the months stated.

It is usually used for dates rather than months:

'I am available from 1st May to 30th September inclusive.' This means
I am available on 1st May and 30th September and all the days in between.

Rover

 

[Pedroski]

Your stint starts from May to September. Is ambiguous, which is why we add 'inclusive'
Your stint starts from May to September inclusive. Your stint includes September, doesn't end at teh end of August.

Americans do this better: May thru September: the months May, June, July, August and September are meant. (Tell me if I'm wrong, as I don't speak American)

 

[Munch]

Your stint starts from May to September inclusive.

Setting aside ambiguity, does this sentence sound natural to you Pedroski? I agree with what Rover_KE said above – you shouldn’t say “starts from May to September”, because nothing starts “from May to September”, it only starts “from May” and ends “in September”.

 

[panicmonger]

Setting aside ambiguity, does this sentence sound natural to you Pedroski? I agree with what Rover_KE said above – you shouldn’t say “starts from May to September”, because nothing starts “from May to September”, it only starts “from May” and ends “in September”.

'Starts from XXX to XXX' is common and normal in Chinese, but maybe it is not so in other languages.

 

[riquecohen]

Your stint starts from May to September. Is ambiguous, which is why we add 'inclusive'
Your stint starts from May to September inclusive. Your stint includes September, doesn't end at teh end of August.

Americans do this better: May thru September: the months May, June, July, August and September are meant. (Tell me if I'm wrong, as I don't speak American)

You're right. We would say that your stint is from May through September or from May 1st through September 30th.

 

[Pedroski]

I see what you mean about sounding funny, but no, it does not sound funny to me. There seems to be a missing 'and goes' before 'to', which would also remove any ambiguity. I think people normally say it without the 'and goes'

'from here to there' is a common phrase too
'from Tuesday(s) to Saturday(s)' You could change 'to' for 'until' or 'till'

Majority rules: if the Chinese say it that way, it must be right!! Hahaha!

 

[Munch]

Just to be clear, it is the “starts from” that makes it sound incorrect to me. These phrases from your post are fine without “starts”, so they don't seem relevant to me:
'from here to there'
'from Tuesday(s) to Saturday(s)'

 

[Pedroski]

Oh, I didn't realize that was what you meant. I don't think 'starts from' is at all unusual. Look it up: search "starts from January" or any combination you like.

You have to start from somewhere, even in Japan!! Why do you find it strange?

 

[Barb_D]

Because you only start once. You can't start continuously for five months.

You don't start from May though September. You start in May or you start on May 1.

 

[Munch]

Because you only start once. You can't start continuously for five months.

You don't start from May though September. You start in May or you start on May 1.

Thanks Barb_D, I though I was going crazy or being terribly unclear.

Pedroski of course the words "starts from..." are fine and so are statements of the form "from X to Y". But as Rover_KE, Barb_D and I have said, we would not say "starts from January to March".

Does "It starts from January to March." sound natural to you?

 

[Pedroski]

I get 8450 hits for "starts from January to March" We do and would say it that way. Sounds fine to me. Maybe it's just shorthand, but it's easily understandable.

eg Our normal internship program starts from January to March each year.

Here an example of what you seem to object to:

The multi-unit sector recorded 3289 starts from January to March 2010, a 31.3% decline from the first three months of last year. 'starts' a noun.

 

[Munch]

I get 8450 hits for "starts from January to March" We do and would say it that way. Sounds fine to me. Maybe it's just shorthand, but it's easily understandable.

eg Our normal internship program starts from January to March each year.

Be careful with Google - yes, you get 8450 hits at first, but if you click on the next pages you will see that there are only 37 results. The first number is just an estimate.

However, your point stands; people do write and speak that way. Try searching for "starts from January to *" The * acts as a wild card. You will find plenty of people have used "starts from X to Y" to mean "starts in X and finishes in Y" (many seem to be non-native speakers or fairly careless writers, though).

In some cases however, "starts from X to Y" meant the starting time varies, from as early to X to as late as Y, and the end point is neither X nor Y. For example, "Our classes start from January to March and end in July."

In short, I don't object to anyone saying "starts from X to Y" instead of "starts in/on X and ends in/on Y", but I would not expect the former in formal situations, and I would advise learners of English to avoid it.

Here an example of what you seem to object to:

The multi-unit sector recorded 3289 starts from January to March 2010, a 31.3% decline from the first three months of last year. 'starts' a noun.

Now I am genuinely confused. Do you really think that the use of "start" as a noun has anything to do with what we have been talking about? What have I said that would make you think I would object to this usage? It is superficially similar, but surely we both understand it is not relevant to what we have been talking about!

 

[5jj]

I get 8450 hits for "starts from January to March" We do and would say it that way. Sounds fine to me. Maybe it's just shorthand, but it's easily understandable.

We never use 'starts from A to B' with the meaning of 'starts in A and ends in B', as Rover_KE, Barb_D and Munch correctly pointed out.

However, Pedroski's example, 'Our normal internship program starts from January to March each year' is different. As Pedroski writes, "Maybe it's just shorthand, but it's easily understandable."

I would prefer to write something along the lines of, 'It is possible to join/start our internship programme at any time from January to March', but that's not necessary. The context makes it clear.

Incidentally, I have little faith in the number of google hits to check whether something is acceptable or not. Checking with google can be a useful beginning, but one would need to read all the pages to check context before trusting the figures.

Later editing: Sorry Munch. I read your last post too quickly, and hadn't fully realised that you had already made these points. Still, I'll let my post stand.

 

[Pedroski]

I don't like that 'never' there. I see two possibilities: 1) You are a prince of some obscure Czech royal lineage, and are using the royal 'we'. 2) You have not bothered to look at this usage. I'll assume 1) because I can easily find, and you could too, many examples of this usage, indicating to me, that people, we, do use this simple, easily understandable, if somewhat ambiguous expression.

The flower season starts from June to October
Rainy season starts from June to early September
hurricane season starts from June to Nov/30
The wet season starts from June to November,
Its practice in public areas starts from June to September

Maybe Your Highness would like to reconsider His use of 'never' when He means people in general?

 

[Barb_D]

The flower season starts from June to October
Rainy season starts from June to early September
hurricane season starts from June to Nov/30
The wet season starts from June to November,
Its practice in public areas starts from June to September

All of these sound utterly wrong to me.
The flower season (?) runs from June through October.
Rainy season starts in June and ends in early September.
There are other ways to write these, but "started from June to [month]" to mean that it covers the entire period of that event is ... sorry... utterly non-native, confusing, unnatural, imprecise, and something that would never survive my editing or the people who edit me!

 

[Dood.]

Your last examples sound quite wrong.
As it has been said, something (a season) has only one start, even if this thing (the season, still) goes from "x" to "y".
So yes, the flower season starts in June and ends in October, but I wouldn't say "from June to...".

 

[5jj]

I don't like that 'never' there. I see two possibilities: 1) You are a prince of some obscure Czech royal lineage, and are using the royal 'we'.
If, Instead of looking for points to criticise, you had bothered to read what I wrote, you would have discovered that I was agreeing in my post with one of the points you had made.

As for my use of 'we', you appear not to have noticed that many members use the pronoun in place of 'I and most speakers of the dialect I use, in my case BrE', or something along those lines. It is quite normal practice among native-speaking teachers and writers.

2) You have not bothered to look at this usage.
I have, actually. That is why I wrote: We never use 'starts from A to B' with the meaning of 'starts in A and ends in B', as Rover_KE, Barb_D and Munch correctly pointed out.

Barb has rsponded to your examples very effectively, so I don't need to.


Maybe Your Highness would like to reconsider His use of 'never' when He means people in general?
:roll:

5

 

[Pedroski]

Hey, don't be so touchy: you used we, which includes me, and I have no problem with 'starts from bla to bla'.

Just to be clear: these examples are not from me. They are taken from the internet. Some will be written by non-native speakers. But there are so many, that I cannot believe they are all from 'foreigners'. There are literally millions if you vary the months or the Xs and Ys. Look for yourselves.

To my ears, when I hear something like: 'The flower season runs from June through October.' I always smile, it sounds so funny, so unnatural. ? Runs from June through October?? But I know Americans say things this way. I think a child in school in England would be pulled up on such English.

 

[5jj]

To my ears, when I hear something like: 'The flower season runs from June through October.' I always smile, it sounds so funny, so unnatural. ? Runs from June through October?? But I know Americans say things this way. I think a child in school in England would be pulled up on such English.

A child in school n England might be, Pedroski, because it is not BrE. But it is completely natural in AmE, a dialect of English which has rather more speakers than BrE.

You will have noticed that members on this thread saying that your examples sound strange include speakers of BrE, AmE and AusE.