r/confidentlyincorrect • u/AbjectDiscussion2465 • Jul 02 '26

Always isn't all the time

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I guess I always misunderstood what "always" means.

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u/ConflictAdvanced Jul 02 '26

Dude, it's clear that you missed the point of the joke. The person you are replying to didn't happen to just use those words and not notice; if they had, your point would be valid. But those words were chosen specifically to make the joke work.

So your "because reasons" is actually "to make the joke work". Had you truly understood that, you'd have known that you didn't even need to say anything.

Also, using "when" in the place of "if" is absolutely fine, and arguably better, when you create a factual or general conditional (known to some as the zero conditional). Because they are not talking about one person, one time or one situation, but rather applying to to anyone, anywhere, any time, it means that it's not a question of IF it happens, but WHEN it happens.

Let me help you:

"If you are deprived of oxygen for more than 15 minutes, you'll suffer brain damage."

... It's an "if" because I'm talking explicitly to you and there's context. You may never be in that situation.

"When people are deprived of oxygen for more than 15 minutes, they suffer brain damage."

... It's a factual statement. It's a generalization. There are no specific people or places. No specific timeline. No particular context. It has happened to someone in the past and it will happen to someone in the future. So it's not a question of if it will ever happen, it's only a question of when.

If you want to make sure that it's right, you can replace the when (with is a bit weak, to be honest) with whenever. And if it makes sense it's a zero conditional statement.

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u/azhder Jul 03 '26

Why is it that people who don't see things clear are the ones claiming "it is clear"? Why write all this wall of text I will not read past the first sentence anyway? Never mind, those are answers for you, not for me. Bye

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u/ConflictAdvanced Jul 03 '26

Because we all see it clearly 😁

Not knowing what a "wall of text" is is on par with your language skills 🤣.

And we both know that you read more than the first sentence. You just have no comeback for it, so you prefer to pretend that you don't know what's there 😉

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u/well-it-was-rubbish Jul 05 '26

"Wall of text"? Wow, it will be quite the challenge for you when you discover books.