Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On 02/17/13 04:54, Jason McIntyre wrote: On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 01:29:00PM +0400, Nick Permyakov wrote: Hi, I might be nitpicking, but the sentence This will take awhile... at the bottom of http://www.openbsd.org/stable.html doesn't seem very grammatical to me. I'd suggest fixing it to read ...take a while Best regards, Nick Permyakov i thought it sounded strange too, so i looked it up. from collins cobuild: awhile: Awhile means for a short time. It is more commonly spelled `a while', which is considered more correct, especially in British English. so i don;t think there's anything wrong with it, as such. having said that, it's written in the context of a make build. i wonder whether the author really wanted to suggest a short time ;) jmc a while/awhile means a short time? wow. I've always used it as meaning a long time. 'course, I usually say it with a sarcastic tone, so maybe it's the sarcasm that gets the point across. I've changed it to This will take some time. Depending on the speed of the system, it may take less than an hour to a week or more. Nick.
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On 02/18/13 19:48, Nick Holland wrote: On 02/17/13 04:54, Jason McIntyre wrote: On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 01:29:00PM +0400, Nick Permyakov wrote: Hi, I might be nitpicking, but the sentence This will take awhile... at the bottom of http://www.openbsd.org/stable.html doesn't seem very grammatical to me. I'd suggest fixing it to read ...take a while Best regards, Nick Permyakov i thought it sounded strange too, so i looked it up. from collins cobuild: awhile: Awhile means for a short time. It is more commonly spelled `a while', which is considered more correct, especially in British English. so i don;t think there's anything wrong with it, as such. having said that, it's written in the context of a make build. i wonder whether the author really wanted to suggest a short time ;) jmc a while/awhile means a short time? wow. I've always used it as meaning a long time. 'course, I usually say it with a sarcastic tone, so maybe it's the sarcasm that gets the point across. I've changed it to This will take some time. Depending on the speed of the system, it may take less than an hour to a week or more. Not that I'm a native English speaker, but I've never ever interpreted a while as a _short_ time specifically, but mostly as a fair but reasonable amount of time relative to the context. But then again, what's the definition of short? I guess that's depending on the context, too. /Alexander
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 20:53, Alexander Hall wrote: On 02/18/13 19:48, Nick Holland wrote: a while/awhile means a short time? wow. I've always used it as meaning a long time. 'course, I usually say it with a sarcastic tone, so maybe it's the sarcasm that gets the point across. Not that I'm a native English speaker, but I've never ever interpreted a while as a _short_ time specifically, but mostly as a fair but reasonable amount of time relative to the context. A while is only short if it's a little while. The default is a big while. :)
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Alexander Hall alexan...@beard.se wrote: On 02/18/13 19:48, Nick Holland wrote: On 02/17/13 04:54, Jason McIntyre wrote: On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 01:29:00PM +0400, Nick Permyakov wrote: Hi, I might be nitpicking, but the sentence This will take awhile... at the bottom of http://www.openbsd.org/stable.**htmlhttp://www.openbsd.org/stable.htmldoesn't seem very grammatical to me. I'd suggest fixing it to read ...take a while Best regards, Nick Permyakov i thought it sounded strange too, so i looked it up. from collins cobuild: awhile: Awhile means for a short time. It is more commonly spelled `a while', which is considered more correct, especially in British English. so i don;t think there's anything wrong with it, as such. having said that, it's written in the context of a make build. i wonder whether the author really wanted to suggest a short time ;) jmc a while/awhile means a short time? wow. I've always used it as meaning a long time. 'course, I usually say it with a sarcastic tone, so maybe it's the sarcasm that gets the point across. I've changed it to This will take some time. Depending on the speed of the system, it may take less than an hour to a week or more. Not that I'm a native English speaker, but I've never ever interpreted a while as a _short_ time specifically, but mostly as a fair but reasonable amount of time relative to the context. But then again, what's the definition of short? I guess that's depending on the context, too. /Alexander i asked native english speaker, apparently, taking awhile is always 'sarcastic', and never short. It is fun to know that the sarcasm is exactly the same in french. Cela va prendre un moment moment is short, but it means a completely undefined time, probably not very short. so the sentence was correct, the 'manual' was wrong -- - () ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail /\
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 12:24 PM, sven falempin sven.falem...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Alexander Hall alexan...@beard.se wrote: On 02/18/13 19:48, Nick Holland wrote: On 02/17/13 04:54, Jason McIntyre wrote: On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 01:29:00PM +0400, Nick Permyakov wrote: Hi, I might be nitpicking, but the sentence This will take awhile... at the bottom of http://www.openbsd.org/stable.**htmlhttp://www.openbsd.org/stable.htmldoesn't seem very grammatical to me. I'd suggest fixing it to read ...take a while Best regards, Nick Permyakov i thought it sounded strange too, so i looked it up. from collins cobuild: awhile: Awhile means for a short time. It is more commonly spelled `a while', which is considered more correct, especially in British English. so i don;t think there's anything wrong with it, as such. having said that, it's written in the context of a make build. i wonder whether the author really wanted to suggest a short time ;) jmc a while/awhile means a short time? wow. I've always used it as meaning a long time. 'course, I usually say it with a sarcastic tone, so maybe it's the sarcasm that gets the point across. I've changed it to This will take some time. Depending on the speed of the system, it may take less than an hour to a week or more. Not that I'm a native English speaker, but I've never ever interpreted a while as a _short_ time specifically, but mostly as a fair but reasonable amount of time relative to the context. But then again, what's the definition of short? I guess that's depending on the context, too. /Alexander i asked native english speaker, apparently, taking awhile is always 'sarcastic', and never short. Not according to dictionaries[1][2][4]. I've never thought awhile as a sarcastic usage. [1] http://thefreedictionary.com/awhile a·while (-hwl, -wl) adv. For a short time. Usage Note: Awhile, an adverb, is never preceded by a preposition such as for, but the two-word form a while may be preceded by a preposition. In writing, each of the following is acceptable: stay awhile; stay for a while; stay a while (but not stay for awhile). [2] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/awhile Adverb awhile (not comparable[3]) For some time; for a short time. Sit with me awhile. [3] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#comparable [4] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awhile Definition of AWHILE : for a while See awhile defined for English-language learners[5] See awhile defined for kids[6] [5] http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/awhile awhile /əˈwajəl/ adverb : for a while : for a short time ▪ I'm going to sit and rest awhile. ▪ The rumor had been around awhile. [6] http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?book=Studentva=awhile It is fun to know that the sarcasm is exactly the same in french. Cela va prendre un moment moment is short, but it means a completely undefined time, probably not very short. so the sentence was correct, the 'manual' was wrong
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On 02/18/13 21:43, patrick keshishian wrote: [5] http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/awhile awhile /əˈwajəl/ adverb : for a while : for a short time ▪ I'm going to sit and rest awhile. ▪ The rumor had been around awhile. While definition and practice may very well differ and change over time, the examples above still demonstrates quite different amounts of time, both of which seems to be considered awhile. Well, OT and enough already. Cheers.
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
i asked native english speaker, apparently, taking awhile is always 'sarcastic', and never short. Not according to dictionaries[1][2][4]. I've never thought awhile as a sarcastic usage. Well I've never seen awhile written without a space so you can take this with a pinch of salt but I've heard I'm gonna be a while so I'll have to give it a miss and I've never heard it rather than something like I won't be long even if in reality that always means they will be ages ;-). -- ___ 'Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface' (Doug McIlroy) ___
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 09:25:06PM +, Kevin Chadwick wrote: i asked native english speaker, apparently, taking awhile is always 'sarcastic', and never short. Not according to dictionaries[1][2][4]. I've never thought awhile as a sarcastic usage. Well I've never seen awhile written without a space so you can take this with a pinch of salt but I've heard I'm gonna be a while so I'll have to give it a miss and I've never heard it rather than something like I won't be long even if in reality that always means they will be ages ;-). This seems like a disturbing trend to me. are we going to turn www into a dumbed-down international english slang ? ...
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On 18/02/13 21:31, Marc Espie wrote: On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 09:25:06PM +, Kevin Chadwick wrote: i asked native english speaker, apparently, taking awhile is always 'sarcastic', and never short. Not according to dictionaries[1][2][4]. I've never thought awhile as a sarcastic usage. Well I've never seen awhile written without a space so you can take this with a pinch of salt but I've heard I'm gonna be a while so I'll have to give it a miss and I've never heard it rather than something like I won't be long even if in reality that always means they will be ages ;-). This seems like a disturbing trend to me. are we going to turn www into a dumbed-down international english slang ? ... Surely the true arbiter on whether awhile is an acceptable term and its meaning would be Professor Elvin Atombender of Impossible Mission (Epyx) notoriety. His invitation to Stay awhile... correlates with the implication of the original text and seems to communicate succinctly the scenario...
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
Marc Espie [es...@nerim.net] wrote: This seems like a disturbing trend to me. are we going to turn www into a dumbed-down international english slang ? ... Yeah, we need some more translations of www. What should we call the mix of hillbilly, valley girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts?
Re: Fixing a phrase in /stable.html
On 02/18/13 19:51, Chris Cappuccio wrote: Marc Espie [es...@nerim.net] wrote: This seems like a disturbing trend to me. are we going to turn www into a dumbed-down international english slang ? ... Yeah, we need some more translations of www. What should we call the mix of hillbilly, valley girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts? Nick@'s writing style SOMEONE had to say it! Nick.
