atw: Re: Web Text Line Length and Par Length ... plurals [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

One friend from Thailand tells me that in many Asian languages plurals are
not used in the way they are in English.  A different logic applies.

My car has four wheel -- of course it is plural because there are four!

The same idea applies to present and past tense (and probably future).
I eat lunch today
I eat lunch yesterday --- of course it is past tense, it was yesterday!

_____________
Bob Trussler



                                                                           
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> Oh, plurals can also be an issue too.

So what are you supposed to do about that? "My car has four wheel"? Or "my
car has one wheel here and one wheel here and one wheel here and one wheel
here"? (Oh no, too long - make that four separate sentences.)

If your readers can't cope with English plurals, how can they cope with
verb tenses, participles and possessives? Do you also keep everything to
the present tense?

I'm used to being told to write for an audience with minimal technical
understanding, but my mind boggles at the idea of writing for someone who's
freaked by the idea that things can occur more than one at a time!!

Howard


Howard Silcock
Technical Writer
Zare Pty Ltd
Ph  02 6261 2073
Fax 02 6112 2073


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