On 10-04-13 12:37, Simon McVittie wrote: > <hat class="native-en_GB-speaker"> > > On 10/04/13 11:24, Wouter Verhelst wrote: >> On 10-04-13 12:07, Raphael Hertzog wrote: >>>> + whitespace, everything after the first hash character (<tt>#</tt>) >>> >>> whitespaces ? (with "s") >> >> No, absolutely not. The word "whitespace" does not have a plural form, >> since it is not a noun (you cannot say "a whitespace", for instance). > > I've mostly seen whitespace used as a "mass noun", like water or sand: > you can say "whitespace is ignored" or "a sequence of whitespace", but > not "a whitespace" or "whitespaces", in the same way that it's correct > to say "some sand", "a piece of sand" or "a cubic metre of sand", but > not "a sand" or "sands". > > (It's also an adjective: "a whitespace character".)
Right. I had a feeling that my statement about the grammatical reasons for my "no" wasn't entirely correct -- but at the very least I was sure about it not having a plural form :-) -- Copyshops should do vouchers. So that next time some bureaucracy requires you to mail a form in triplicate, you can mail it just once, add a voucher, and save on postage. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/516541d0.1050...@debian.org
