Verkisto's typo thread brought me to this...

I'm guessing through consistent use the pluralization of e-mail with e-mails has become acceptable, but it hits my ear like sledgehammer. The second that word enters the fray whatever else follows is lost on me as my brain begins spinning out of control.

Am I wrong in this? Isn't e-mail considered an "aggregate noun" like the word mail itself since it's a shortened "electronic mail"? Does anyone walk to their mailbox and say "Look at all the mails we got today?"

E-mails sounds like baby talk to me, and I always want to reply to "Man, I got a lot of e-mails! with "Whatsa matter, you gots a whatta e-mails to wead? Oh poor wittle boy."

I know it's become socially acceptable as I hear it everywhere, but that doesn't mean it's right!

"I took three days off, and when I came back there were 247 email waiting for me."

Yeah...that sounds like Beethoven to me.

My Pokemans. Let me show you them.

Would you go to your mailbox and say "I took three days off, and when I came back there were 247 mail waiting for me."?

No, I'd say "247 letters" or "things."

keep away from all the deers
(this one drives an English teacher friend of ours crazy :devil

Exactly. So instead of "e-mails" you use "messages".

Should I also put periods outside the quotation marks? I thought we were trying to be "right."

My son has thousands of Legos.

No, I was wrong with that. I know that this is the internet and I should never admit to being wrong, but when I am I admit it.

The thing about punctuation is that it doesn't hit my ears.

Jawas always sounds wrong to me as a plural, but Jawa sounds wrong too.

Jawai.

See, that's a style rule that offends me both aesthetically and logically, but I probably just need to get out more.

Back to the original topic, I think 'email' is rapidly becoming both the collective noun - "I have a lot of email" - and a distinct object synonymous with 'message' - "I have 1000 unread emails". I'd prefer "I have 1000 unread messages" for the latter, but it grates a whole lot less than a lot of other things - particularly "legos".

Or Jawae?

Out of the UK, at least.

As an editor, I'd probably change it to "messages," but we're--understandably--more forgiving when it comes to the "correctness" of the spoken word compared to the written.

If someone uses "emails" in a conversation, do you have to stop and wonder what he or she is talking about? No? Then mission accomplished.

(And this is coming from someone who sympathizes with you, Dave.)

BTW: When was the last time you heard someone use furnitures, traffics, or polices?

Are you ever around children? I hear those kinds of words often from the mouths of kids. My son uttered "furnitures" just this past weekend. That's why I said e-mails sounded like baby talk to me.

I'm sorry, I set up my computer to send me internets whenever there were replies to this thread, but they didn't work. Pipes must be clogged today. So,.... what did I miss?

I don't like it when people say "maths" as an abbreviation for "mathematics". I like "math" better.

And I like getting e-mail. And messages. And spam is plural, right?

That's left-pond / right-pond again, I guess. "Maths" is the standard, accepted abbreviation in the UK - I didn't know it got used as an option in the US.

Out of coding, too, which is where the 'logical' part comes in. If it's not part of the string, it doesn't go inside the string delimiters. Then again, I'll happily nest brackets in written communication too, although I try not to do it in formal documentation.

That sets me off on another thought - brackets (), curly-brackets {}, square-brackets []?

Or parentheses (), brackets {}, square-brackets []?

I'm not sure if that's a geographical split, a coder / writer one, or something else entirely...

[These are brackets]

{I don't know what these are}

This is also teh be$t thr3@d evar, btw.

O.o

{These are braces. Not to be confused with suspenders.}

int thisThread(int meaning) {
int death = 100;
int[] trueMeaning {42, 0, death};
if(meaning <= trueMeaning[2]) {

return trueMeaning[0];
} else {
return ‽;
}
}

Nonono. Braces go on your teeth. Bracers hold your trousers up. Suspenders are an undergarment for ladies to stop their stockings falling down.

Much hilarity is to be derived in the UK from belt-less Americans under suspicion of being transvestites

OMG another horrific lecture from the purveyors of Bangers and Mash, shed-you-ull, eh wot?, and gor blimey.