Somebody teach MS English
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Marcus Idle? Idle is right! Member since: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 (5 years, 11 months) Article count: 0 Post count: 1 I call shenanigans! And Cylon!
And I'm a real person, honest!
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And I'm a real person, honest!
That what you were bound to say ;)
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Let's see....the MS Installer displays the following during installation, "Program X is being installed." Sorry folks, in my English classes, all my teachers would have put a big red mark around that one. MS Communicator tells us politely, "Joe Smith is typing a message." Not a chance. Whomever writes these programs, please learn English above the second grade level.
Is Microsoft's grammar above a second grade level? Maybe, maybe not. Is their grammar appropriate to the target audience? Probably. Which is more important? Show me the money, baby.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
Let's see....the MS Installer displays the following during installation, "Program X is being installed." Sorry folks, in my English classes, all my teachers would have put a big red mark around that one. MS Communicator tells us politely, "Joe Smith is typing a message." Not a chance. Whomever writes these programs, please learn English above the second grade level.
Tim Schwallie wrote:
"Program X is being installed."
:confused: Isn't that "passive voice"? What's wrong with that?
Tim Schwallie wrote:
"Joe Smith is typing a message."
:confused: Isn't that a gerund? What's wrong with that?
Stupidity is an International Association - Enrique Jardiel Poncela Die deutsche Sprache sollte sanft und ehrfurchtsvoll zu den toten Sprachen abgelegt werden, denn nur die Toten haben die Zeit, diese Sprache zu lernen. - Mark Twain
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Tim Schwallie wrote:
"Program X is being installed."
:confused: Isn't that "passive voice"? What's wrong with that?
Tim Schwallie wrote:
"Joe Smith is typing a message."
:confused: Isn't that a gerund? What's wrong with that?
Stupidity is an International Association - Enrique Jardiel Poncela Die deutsche Sprache sollte sanft und ehrfurchtsvoll zu den toten Sprachen abgelegt werden, denn nur die Toten haben die Zeit, diese Sprache zu lernen. - Mark Twain
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Tim You're from the United States, right? Native speaker? Two tenses Joe Smith runs = he usually runs, running is his thing. He may not be running right now. Joe Smith is running = yep, there he goes. Cheers -Marcus
yep give this guy a cookie. the screwy 'run' verb. he runs today -> he is running today he currently runs -> he is currently running what does he like to do? he runs. How does he run? he runs well. I is living in the US. ..bugga... I live in Chicago. Go Cubs! Go Soxs!
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ProgramX installing. Joe Smith types a message.
Tim Schwallie wrote:
ProgramX installing.
This isn't a sentence. You wouldn't say "Dog Farting" you would say (the) dog is farting.
Tim Schwallie wrote:
Joe Smith types a message.
This provides less information than "Joe Smith is typing a message". The latter tells you that Joe is typing right now - the former merely that Joe types a message at some point in time. Somebody teach you English bad, dude. All your base are belong to us.
Take a chill pill, Daddy-o .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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and I take it you still write Joey is running like a moron. Yes, the sentence is technically correct. Though, I learned in the age where 'to-be' verb usage faced a docking in points on papers. And so the usage of 'to-be' verbs became instilled as an indicator for a lack of intelligence in the minds of many. Since you like baseball, I just moved to first base cause the first base umpire called a balk.
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Let's see....the MS Installer displays the following during installation, "Program X is being installed." Sorry folks, in my English classes, all my teachers would have put a big red mark around that one. MS Communicator tells us politely, "Joe Smith is typing a message." Not a chance. Whomever writes these programs, please learn English above the second grade level.
Replace ProgramX with another noun such as a person's name: Little Johny is being chased Little Johny chasing Well that's different. Now what?
- S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on! A post a day, keeps the white coats away!
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Let's see....the MS Installer displays the following during installation, "Program X is being installed." Sorry folks, in my English classes, all my teachers would have put a big red mark around that one. MS Communicator tells us politely, "Joe Smith is typing a message." Not a chance. Whomever writes these programs, please learn English above the second grade level.
A fun rant this has been. And now, everyone who sees these comments and Program is being installed... or Joe is writing a message. will have a little something in the back of their head say: "Damn you MS!!!! Damn you!!!!" or 'To be or not to be' what was Shakey really writing about? ;P
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Let's see....the MS Installer displays the following during installation, "Program X is being installed." Sorry folks, in my English classes, all my teachers would have put a big red mark around that one. MS Communicator tells us politely, "Joe Smith is typing a message." Not a chance. Whomever writes these programs, please learn English above the second grade level.
The english displayed is correct. 1. The "installer service" is the program that is doing "installation" of the program. so instead of writing "installer service is installing program X" it is better to use passive form. The program being installed is just a stream of bytes. 2. Whats wrong with "Joe x is typing a message"? In addition to that "Whomever" is old fashioned, "Whoever" is correct. maybe you should re learn english from some better place.
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Tim You're from the United States, right? Native speaker? Two tenses Joe Smith runs = he usually runs, running is his thing. He may not be running right now. Joe Smith is running = yep, there he goes. Cheers -Marcus
Marcus Idle (Oxford) wrote:
Two tenses Joe Smith runs = he usually runs, running is his thing. He may not be running right now. Joe Smith is running = yep, there he goes.
Exactly what I was taught. And I'm not a native speaker.
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What colour is the dog?
Steve Thresher wrote:
What colour is the dog?
Who cares? Let's put it in the LHC...
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Let's see....the MS Installer displays the following during installation, "Program X is being installed." Sorry folks, in my English classes, all my teachers would have put a big red mark around that one. MS Communicator tells us politely, "Joe Smith is typing a message." Not a chance. Whomever writes these programs, please learn English above the second grade level.
Maybe you should grab your second grade level book and search for "Present Progressive" ;)
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ProgramX installing. Joe Smith types a message.
Hi Well, I believe this is wrong, and the messages in the installer and MS Communicator are correct. You're using present simple tense, which is used for habitual actions, whereas the messages you've marked as "wrong" are using present continuous tense, which is used for actions that are (not necessarily habitual but) taking place at the time the sentence is spoken (or written). If you're still reluctant to accept the correctness of these messages, I would suggest that you actually show them to your English teacher (making sure you describe the context in which these occur) and ask him/her whether they are correct or not. Regards, Yiannis
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Maybe you should grab your second grade level book and search for "Present Progressive" ;)
Well, technically there is no such thing as "proper" english. English is made up of at least 10 other languages and it's "rules" are not even close to being consistent. For every rule there is a page of exceptions. And schooling isn't actually standardised regardless of what you might have heard. Some schools are more advanced than others, some teach things differently etc. So both snippets are both technically correct and incorrect, just depends on what rules you are using.
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Tim Schwallie wrote:
"Program X is being installed."
:confused: Isn't that "passive voice"? What's wrong with that?
Tim Schwallie wrote:
"Joe Smith is typing a message."
:confused: Isn't that a gerund? What's wrong with that?
Stupidity is an International Association - Enrique Jardiel Poncela Die deutsche Sprache sollte sanft und ehrfurchtsvoll zu den toten Sprachen abgelegt werden, denn nur die Toten haben die Zeit, diese Sprache zu lernen. - Mark Twain
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
Tim Schwallie wrote: "Program X is being installed." Confused Isn't that "passive voice"? What's wrong with that?
Stylistically the passive voice should be used as infrequently as possible eg "The Computer is currently installing Program X" Of course this falls foul of OPs "To Be" rule
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yep give this guy a cookie. the screwy 'run' verb. he runs today -> he is running today he currently runs -> he is currently running what does he like to do? he runs. How does he run? he runs well. I is living in the US. ..bugga... I live in Chicago. Go Cubs! Go Soxs!
Tim Schwallie wrote:
I is living in the US.
Did you mean: I am living in US.
"In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni
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Tim Schwallie wrote:
I is living in the US.
Did you mean: I am living in US.
"In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni
Actually, he would write "I living in US." Don't want those tenses in there. :-D
Cheetah. Ferret. Gonads. What more can I say? - Pete O'Hanlon
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A fun rant this has been. And now, everyone who sees these comments and Program is being installed... or Joe is writing a message. will have a little something in the back of their head say: "Damn you MS!!!! Damn you!!!!" or 'To be or not to be' what was Shakey really writing about? ;P
How has this been fun for you? The majority think you're wrong. :pointandlaughsmiley:
