Re: [gentoo-user] At last! A Qt5 version of KMail-2 - but here be dragons!

[Alan McKinnon]

On 28/12/2016 11:28, J. Roeleveld wrote:
> On December 27, 2016 9:36:36 PM GMT+01:00, Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk> wrote:
>> On Tue, 27 Dec 2016 19:54:57 +0000, J. Roeleveld wrote:
>>
>>> Speaking of English. I always wonder which would be a better match
>> for
>>> someone who uses English mostly to deal with international friends
>> and
>>> computers. I am Dutch myself, which means it's officially a second
>>> language for me. (Always wondered about that, as I speak several
>>> languages and fluency is simply a matter of which I speak regularly).
>> I
>>> usually throw a dice to decide between US and UK whenever I get
>> asked.
>>
>> As a native English speaking pedant, I would throw "a die" or "some
>> dice"
>> to decide, dice is the plural :P
>
> I stand corrected. Always thought the word was both singular and plural.
>
> Probably because most games with dice have more then 1.
>
> Still wondering which the majority of non-english-natives would use.
> Is there an Irish, Welsh or Scottish dictionary available? (Sequence chosen randomly)

There are really only two:

- dictionaries printed in England (Oxford's collection is the de-facto
definitive)
- dictionaries printed in the U.S.A., which all seem to follow the local
lingo i.e. New York English is a very different beast from L.A. English

English is a funny language, almost unique. It absorbs new words and
grammars from the local language like the Borg. And some of us (myself
included) want to keep the rules the same even though they are
constantly changing from new input :-)

How do you think "sheep" got to be both singular and plural? Wasn't
always like that, it became that way and now it's the correct form.

Same with die and dice - one day you will be correct but Peter and I
will be wrong


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@×××××.com