I would like some English speakers opinion on a grammatical issue related to English.
ca, kivuye
Ubutumwa 17
ururimi: English
Christa627 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 10 Mukakaro 2014 19:36:45
Kristal:I agree with PlaidMouse, but I'm at a loss as to why anyone would divide a twelve-unit-measure into units of ten (with a decimal point). The problem that I see is your inclusion of numbers in the written statement rather than spelling out the numbers in lettered form (...) Only in metric units should you use "point" in breaking down the measurement, since metric units break naturally into tenths.But evidently the fridge displays at the store used the decimal point, and so for Foreigner to use it when referencing them came naturally. Easier than trying to calculate what 1.4 feet is in the usual divisions!
BTW I have seen rulers that measure in 10ths of an inch; they were for some particular purpose, but I don't remember what.
Foreigner (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 10 Mukakaro 2014 20:06:51
PlaidMouse (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 21 Mukakaro 2014 11:48:50
Foreigner:Because feet are in units of 12 (inches) I was wrong to say 1.4 feet. That would only be correct if it were 1.4 meters. I made a mistake, but the mathematics is what I'm worried about; it was just a grammar thing I've never come across before.Though not common, I don't think it is incorrect to use decimals with feet. You're just writing the number using a different mathematical notation. 1.4 feet = 1 and 2/5 feet.
However, it is common to write fractions when using imperial measurements and decimals when using metric, so best to stick to convention. By the way, did you end up buying a refrigerator and if so, what kind (if you are willing to share)?
Nile (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 21 Mukakaro 2014 12:48:42
Also, i wouldn't say "6 pound 4 ounces", and i'm not sure that any American would. I'd say "6 pounds (and) 4 ounces". I think the only time my syntax for measures souds like that is for heights (and not distances), eg "The average American is 5 foot 10.".
sparksbet (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 21 Mukakaro 2014 23:57:56
Nile:Also, i wouldn't say "6 pound 4 ounces", and i'm not sure that any American would. I'd say "6 pounds (and) 4 ounces". I think the only time my syntax for measures souds like that is for heights (and not distances), eg "The average American is 5 foot 10.".The "and" can and often is omitted in American English, for weights as well as heights. In fact, I've almost never heard someone include the "and" in a figure of pounds and ounces like that - which I usually hear in the context of reporting a baby's birth weight. You may not commonly hear it that way, but don't assume that the rest of America is the same!
Dominique (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 22 Mukakaro 2014 04:26:36
Note that this is not true in all languages.
You can see this in po files which encodes plural forms here:
[url= http://localization-guide.readthedocs.org/en/lates...]
http://localization-guide.readthedocs.org/en/latest/l10n/pluralforms.html[/url]
English: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);
Which means that English has 2 different forms: singular and plural (when n is different than 1)
So accordingly, we say:
* 0 feet
* 0.5 feet
* 1 foot
* 1.5 feet
For French, unlike English, it is: nplurals=2; plural=(n > 1);
So in French we say:
* 0 pied
* 0,5 pied
* 1 pied
* 1,5 pieds
(note also the comma instead of dot)
For Esperanto, usage varies. See:
http://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/unu-nombro_mult...
Timtim (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Mukakaro 2014 09:41:17
Dominique:In English, 1 is singular and different than 1 is plural.Yep, that's the summary. Any number that is not identical to 1 is plural. Only the number 1 itself is treated as a singular. If it's even a little bit over or under 1, then it's treated as plural: "He walks so slowly. I measured his walking speed and it's 0.99 miles per hour. He didn't even reach one mile per hour!"
It's a bit different with fractions, which follow the logic of counting rather than measuring. We would say "Since there are two of us and one cake, we get half a cake each" but "Since there are two of us and three cakes, we get one and a half cakes each". Likewise "The old fridge is half a metre [but '0.5 metres'] tall" and "The new fridge is one and a half metres [and '1.5 metres'] tall".