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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: [KWORD] little error in an i18n message
From:       Nicolas Goutte <nicolasg () snafu ! de>
Date:       2003-10-05 21:57:40
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On Sunday 05 October 2003 20:01, Thomas Zander wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 06:44:20PM +0200, David Faure wrote:
> > On Sunday 05 October 2003 18:27, Nicolas Goutte wrote:
> > > Oops! Before you misunderstood what I meant. By using "you" in the
> > > example of the the example I gave, I did not meant you, Thomas Zander,
> > > I meant an anonymous genralized you. (Yes, I should not translate
> > > directly my ideas from French but try to express them directly in
> > > English.)
> >
> > Wow - so you *are* french. I was never sure ;)
>
> When a french speaking person writes in English its always a dead givaway
> :) I must admit that with both you and Nicolas this is not true anymore;
> both your English is quite fluent ;)

Well that is the problem that the grammar of the languages seems so near. But 
the words chosen are mostly the French ones and make too polite or too 
synthetic in English. (Or too many commas?)

As for us two, well, I suppose it takes time to write in English quickly and 
correctly, even if learnt at school. (I have not learnt to write emails at 
school. So passing an hour over a text and it remains relatively without any 
error but a five minute email...)

>
> > BTW anonymous "you" exists in English too, AFAIK.
>
> I always put the word 'plural' after it when it might be confusing.  But
> when you talk to non-experienced-english speakers its better to rewrite the
> sentence.
>
> - This can happen sometimes. You get hours of delay...
> + This can happen sometimes. An email can get hours of delay...

Yes, it is probably better. It has the advantage not to shock people that have 
not such a construct in their language or who might take it too personally too 
quickly. But it is not natural to me and I must force me to use it. (I will 
try to take better care about it.)

The problem is that it might sound anoymous and the reader finds it not 
personal enough. (Keyword: arrogant) Well it is never right... :-)

>
> In general you might want to read you mail from the top before you press
> send.

Well, you can read it many times and your brain reads what it thinks and not 
what is on the paper/screen. Even reading from bottom to top is not always an 
alternative. But then when you get the message back from the mailing list and 
you read it again, relatively fresh, as you have thought about something else 
in between, then you realise your error immediately.

>
>
> btw;
> /me is hoping to see this message appear immidiately on the list :)

Has it worked? :-)

Have a nice day!

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