ugh. it’s not that hard a concept. (scroll to end for simple answer/reasoning)- it’s a riddle, thus meant to mislead, thus why it is called a riddle. but it is also a clever riddle. all months have 28 days. to those whining, ‘no some have 30 etc’ yeah, which means they have 28 + 2 months. if you have 20$, and are asked if you have 8$, yo don’t not have 8$, because you weren’t asked if you have 8$, or exactly 8$. if you have 20$, you have 4$ 17$ 6.66$ 3.141594$. you don’t have 21$ or 0$ however. riddle is clever, one of the many reasons is it says this without saying this, put ppl are willing to say february before the question is finished.
to ‘all english people would take it,’ wow, i’d like to meet you, some kinda diety that knows how every creature thinks/infers, filtered of course, somehow, by those who speak english. oh the enlightenment!! -but yes, the ‘way people would take it ‘commonly but certainly not absolute, is exactly, WHY it’s a riddle. an effective one.
but regardless, if you were chinese, the ‘misleading’ language is why it called a a”riddle”. if it was, ‘which months have 28 days, but not more or less than 28 days, ‘ that wouldn’t be a riddle, it would be a really really really stupid question. but if it makes you happy, subtract the fun, common sense; “february every 4 years,”. there shouldn’t be that much debate there either.
it’s like a magic trick. this misled here is february, it puts that in your head, to distract you from thinking, ‘or looking’ at the ‘exact’ language, which asks simply, how many months have 28 days. “at least” isn’t necessary. If you have 10$, and are asked if you have 7$, yes, you do. you don’t not have 7$ because you have a 10$ bill. the question was not, “do you have exactly 7$?”, such inferences are incorrect.
(conclusion, put)
Simply, it’s a riddle, any answer that is not, “all of them” is wrong. additional inferences are the intended mislead, if you consider them, congrats! you just proved the riddle a good one.
this is probably from the free internet “IQ test” from Mensa. It’s pure bull because if you don’t expect it to be a riddle, it doesn’t matter how “smart” you are. Because of how the language works (not only English) it is expected that when you phrase the question like that, that it’s about the total amount of days. It works in a way that even if you don’t say the word “total” you still mean that while you have to say the word “at least” if you don’t mean the total. It’s not really a clever riddle if you ask me, because it only works if the person doesn’t know it’s a riddle. Any sane person would probably be right otherwise. A good riddle is one that isn’t close to obvious even if you know it’s a riddle
I do not even understand what these guys are saying alreaady the calender has its standared readings and you can not change that. that is 30 days has sept,april,june and Nov they rest has 31 days except Feb with 28 days and not 28th.so if they how many months has 2days u will say 12 ?huh madness its should be howmany months has the 2nd day bc ech month begins from 1st 2nd and so on.some pple are talking about having a feast for 28days in december thats very stupid bc the calender does not know your feast its has standard readings that can never be alter by your stupid feast for 28 days
Actually they need to specify on the Julian or Gregorian calendar. The Mayans had a month that was only 5 days long so all of them is not a correct answer.
Really? Over one silly question?
What’s worse? all the comments being posted as if the question is such a complicated mathematical problem, or the people that are saying it’s a dumb question. Its a riddle PEOPLE!…
The riddle plays on the distinction between “semantics” and “pragmatics”, where semantics is concerned only with what sentences explicitly say, while pragmatics concerns itself with what we imply with our sentences. The question above (how many months have 28 days?) does not explicitly say that it’s looking for months with *only* or *exactly* 28 days, so semantically speaking the correct answer should include any month that has *at least* 28 days (all of them). However, pragmatically we assume that the questioner has a certain amount of knowledge: they know that some months have 30 days, and others have 31, and we might also assume they probably know that no months have any fewer than 28 days. If we assume the questioner knows all this, then we will infer that they already know the answer to the question as it was explicitly asked. It’s a pragmatic norm that we don’t ask questions we already know the answer to, and so we infer that the questioner must be asking some other question. The candidate question that makes the most sense in this context is “how many months have *only* 28 days?”.
So when the answer turns out to be “all of them”, this is only because the questioner is breaking pragmatic norms.
Alternatively, we sometimes ask questions we know the answer to when we are *quizzing* others. But there are assumptions we make when being quizzed too. We assume that the quizzer has assumed some of *our* knowledge – in this context, our knowledge that no months have fewer than 28 days – and so they wouldn’t ask a question with an answer that would be so easy for us. Instead they ask the question which is (arguably) a bit less common knowledge: “how many months have only 28 days?”
And so when the answer turns out to be “all of them”, this is only because the quizzer is breaking pragmatic norms.
So nobody’s really “wrong”, it’s just that the “right answer” is different depending on whether we’re concerned with pragmatics or just semantics.
100 Comments on "How Many Months Have 28 Days?"
Hannah.... says
May 15, 2015 @ 09:11
so how many months have 28 days
‘
Hannah.... says
May 15, 2015 @ 09:12
this is a major grade and i need to know! im in college and im counting on yall to help me!
Hannah.... says
May 15, 2015 @ 09:13
oh. never mind. i get it. i feel so dumb! lol
mike says
July 27, 2015 @ 17:56
ugh. it’s not that hard a concept. (scroll to end for simple answer/reasoning)- it’s a riddle, thus meant to mislead, thus why it is called a riddle. but it is also a clever riddle. all months have 28 days. to those whining, ‘no some have 30 etc’ yeah, which means they have 28 + 2 months. if you have 20$, and are asked if you have 8$, yo don’t not have 8$, because you weren’t asked if you have 8$, or exactly 8$. if you have 20$, you have 4$ 17$ 6.66$ 3.141594$. you don’t have 21$ or 0$ however. riddle is clever, one of the many reasons is it says this without saying this, put ppl are willing to say february before the question is finished.
to ‘all english people would take it,’ wow, i’d like to meet you, some kinda diety that knows how every creature thinks/infers, filtered of course, somehow, by those who speak english. oh the enlightenment!! -but yes, the ‘way people would take it ‘commonly but certainly not absolute, is exactly, WHY it’s a riddle. an effective one.
but regardless, if you were chinese, the ‘misleading’ language is why it called a a”riddle”. if it was, ‘which months have 28 days, but not more or less than 28 days, ‘ that wouldn’t be a riddle, it would be a really really really stupid question. but if it makes you happy, subtract the fun, common sense; “february every 4 years,”. there shouldn’t be that much debate there either.
it’s like a magic trick. this misled here is february, it puts that in your head, to distract you from thinking, ‘or looking’ at the ‘exact’ language, which asks simply, how many months have 28 days. “at least” isn’t necessary. If you have 10$, and are asked if you have 7$, yes, you do. you don’t not have 7$ because you have a 10$ bill. the question was not, “do you have exactly 7$?”, such inferences are incorrect.
(conclusion, put)
Simply, it’s a riddle, any answer that is not, “all of them” is wrong. additional inferences are the intended mislead, if you consider them, congrats! you just proved the riddle a good one.
dave says
August 14, 2015 @ 13:30
this is probably from the free internet “IQ test” from Mensa. It’s pure bull because if you don’t expect it to be a riddle, it doesn’t matter how “smart” you are. Because of how the language works (not only English) it is expected that when you phrase the question like that, that it’s about the total amount of days. It works in a way that even if you don’t say the word “total” you still mean that while you have to say the word “at least” if you don’t mean the total. It’s not really a clever riddle if you ask me, because it only works if the person doesn’t know it’s a riddle. Any sane person would probably be right otherwise. A good riddle is one that isn’t close to obvious even if you know it’s a riddle
Katie says
October 18, 2015 @ 08:26
It’s All 12 months that’s have 28th days! It’s a tricky & awesome riddle! If it had word differently then the answer would have be 11 months!
Katie says
October 18, 2015 @ 08:27
Oops my bad would have been not the be
kulu says
January 4, 2016 @ 03:41
I do not even understand what these guys are saying alreaady the calender has its standared readings and you can not change that. that is 30 days has sept,april,june and Nov they rest has 31 days except Feb with 28 days and not 28th.so if they how many months has 2days u will say 12 ?huh madness its should be howmany months has the 2nd day bc ech month begins from 1st 2nd and so on.some pple are talking about having a feast for 28days in december thats very stupid bc the calender does not know your feast its has standard readings that can never be alter by your stupid feast for 28 days
Ali says
June 21, 2016 @ 08:35
Off course 12 monthes. Because every month got 28
RM Gimena says
October 28, 2016 @ 00:47
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHHO. I’ve never had as good a laugh till I came across this site. Thanks to all and I mean to all HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO.
Myrag says
November 1, 2016 @ 13:49
Actually they need to specify on the Julian or Gregorian calendar. The Mayans had a month that was only 5 days long so all of them is not a correct answer.
Hugo says
November 28, 2016 @ 08:53
Really? Over one silly question?
What’s worse? all the comments being posted as if the question is such a complicated mathematical problem, or the people that are saying it’s a dumb question. Its a riddle PEOPLE!…
John says
December 25, 2016 @ 04:24
Okay so here’s what you’re saying:
Question: How many animals have two letters in its name?
Average answer: One. Ox.
Real answer: They all have two letters in their name.
Seriously? If I said “dog” and “cat” have two letters in their name I would technically be correct?
Luthan says
February 16, 2017 @ 08:38
The riddle plays on the distinction between “semantics” and “pragmatics”, where semantics is concerned only with what sentences explicitly say, while pragmatics concerns itself with what we imply with our sentences. The question above (how many months have 28 days?) does not explicitly say that it’s looking for months with *only* or *exactly* 28 days, so semantically speaking the correct answer should include any month that has *at least* 28 days (all of them). However, pragmatically we assume that the questioner has a certain amount of knowledge: they know that some months have 30 days, and others have 31, and we might also assume they probably know that no months have any fewer than 28 days. If we assume the questioner knows all this, then we will infer that they already know the answer to the question as it was explicitly asked. It’s a pragmatic norm that we don’t ask questions we already know the answer to, and so we infer that the questioner must be asking some other question. The candidate question that makes the most sense in this context is “how many months have *only* 28 days?”.
So when the answer turns out to be “all of them”, this is only because the questioner is breaking pragmatic norms.
Alternatively, we sometimes ask questions we know the answer to when we are *quizzing* others. But there are assumptions we make when being quizzed too. We assume that the quizzer has assumed some of *our* knowledge – in this context, our knowledge that no months have fewer than 28 days – and so they wouldn’t ask a question with an answer that would be so easy for us. Instead they ask the question which is (arguably) a bit less common knowledge: “how many months have only 28 days?”
And so when the answer turns out to be “all of them”, this is only because the quizzer is breaking pragmatic norms.
So nobody’s really “wrong”, it’s just that the “right answer” is different depending on whether we’re concerned with pragmatics or just semantics.
That’s my take anyway.
Jayden says
March 13, 2017 @ 18:35
ALL MONTHS HAS 28 DAYS
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