On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:35:29 +0200, Chris Mason <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>This is a language problem. Unfortunately it is quite common in French, for >example, to translate from a French plural word to what should be, in >English, a collective noun which is only ever used in the singular. Thus, >for example, "logiciels" should translate to "software" but francophones >very often/nearly always come up with "softwares" because "logiciels" is >plural. I've just now seen another post in another list where the word >"advices" appeared, presumably the poster had the word "conseils" in mind. Yeah We french people ( some other foreigners as well) are often using a strange grammar . agreed . and confusing it . agreed ! But then : logiciel and software are not necessarily the same thing . It is a subtility ( or a pain :-)) ) in the french language un logiciel means "a software PRODUCT" le logiciel means "software" les logiciels means 'software products" So as you can see,if it is plural ,we are definitely talking about software products . If it is singular and it is behind le ( The ) it becomes software . And if it is singular with the number 1 in front it becomes again a software product .( right ,because the number could be different than zero ) Not sure i make myself clear but i could explain it in french :-)) And in french i would tell you that for me a software product is not necessarily software <big grin> Bruno Bruno(dot)sugliani(at)groupemornay(dot)asso(dot)fr ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
