Amazon UK are weird

[Deano2099]

While this is the greatest thread-derail ever, I just wanted to say my copy of GTTS arrived from one of the Amazon UK marketplace sellers today

 

[captcalhoun]

i'm waiting on the courier to deliver GTTS, FS, Dale Brown's Shadow Command, UXM: Apocalypse and Ifinity's Prism and hoping like hell they don't try tomorrow when i'm at work/the 'rents go shopping...

 

[Christopher]

That sheep and fish are singular, too, even when I see a lot of them is probably also something I will never really get used to.

They're not singular when there's more than one... it's just that the singular and the plural are spelled the same.

That fish is swimming along, but the other fish are swimming with each other. This sheep is white, but those sheep are brown and white.

David's right. The true indicator of plurality is not whether a word has an S on the end, because there are quite a few irregular plurals that don't. A word that doesn't end in S but takes a plural verb is still plural.

Although "fishes" can be valid too. Wikipedia explains:

Fish does have a regular plural form, but it differs in meaning from the unmarked plural; fishes refers to several species or other taxonomic types, while fish (plural) is used to describe multiple individual animals: one would say "the order of fishes," but "five fish in an aquarium." The plural fishes is found in the King James Bible, in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, for example, and is sometimes used for rhetorical emphasis, as in phrases like sleep with the fishes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plural

 

[Baerbel Haddrell]

Thank you - all of you. This board can be so educational.

 

[Rosalind]

Interesting. English is not my native language and although I have been living in Britain for more than 15 years, I am still not perfect. I probably never will be.

I've been living in Australia for that long too, and my proofreads still find dozens of mistakes per page in my papers.

I still keep forgetting that news is singular in at least British English. "Here is the news" still makes me cringe because it goes so much against my German feel of language.

That sheep and fish are singular, too, even when I see a lot of them is probably also something I will never really get used to.

at least you have some idea of singular/plural usage, in Chinese "is" and "are" are the same word, and I think plural is only used for people (eg. students, teachers), at least I can't think of any instance where you'd say things like factories. then there are the third person verbs, things like "he says" vs "I say", nope. I still make these sort of mistakes, I try to minimise them, but they slip through.

 

[Will Lucky]

They are a strange organisation.

I've had 'Greater than the Sum' on my wishlist for ages, and have been growing more and more frustrated with how it's still not available, even though the Marketplace sellers normally make it available at the same time as it's released in the US.

And today I find out it's because there are *two* complete entries for 'Greater than the Sum', with it having been avaiable in the other entry for a while now. Needless to say, I put in my order straight away.

Insanely frustrating.

Yeah, just noticed this now and whats worse is by the time the books I want arrive at my house I will have just left for my holiday. Which makes the matter much worse as I wanted to take a few of them with me for the massive Car Journey.

 

[Trilliam]

[/quote]

Yeah, just noticed this now and whats worse is by the time the books I want arrive at my house I will have just left for my holiday. Which makes the matter much worse as I wanted to take a few of them with me for the massive Car Journey.[/quote]


Isn't that nearly always the way, though?

 

[captcalhoun]

i'm waiting on the courier to deliver GTTS, FS, Dale Brown's Shadow Command, UXM: Apocalypse and Ifinity's Prism and hoping like hell they don't try tomorrow when i'm at work/the 'rents go shopping...

and they did...

but the driver left it under our wheelbarrow in the garden.

unfortunately, i ordered the wrong copy of Shadow Command, the TPB version...