wrong English grammar in format compatibility mismatch warning

[neuroman9999]

hey all,

has anyone ever seen this happen to them? see the image below. what this looks like is that a foreign-born engineer at microsoft who learned English as a second language, wrote the development code for Excel that popped up this error message. The grammar is incorrect. Has anyone ever seen something like this before? This is the first time I have seen it.

 

[OldeCow69]

Well English is the only language I speak and that message seems fine to me?

Excel throws it when someone renames a delimited text file to xls for example.

What do you think it should say?

 

[arnelgp]

Neuroman is a perfectionist.
the noun is singular so it must use doesn't instead of don't.

 

[neuroman9999]

What do you think it should say?

well I'm not really sure. perhaps I'm the one that is incorrect here. After all, the word "dont" IS describing more than one qualifying word. so....

 

[Darrell]

I think that the much maligned 'foreign-born engineer at microsoft who learned English as a second language' is correct.

Example
'My tie and my shirt don't match'

I wouldn't say 'My tie and my shirt doesn't match', I would say 'My tie doesn't match my shirt'

In this case if you wanted to change the error message to use doesn't it would need to read:

"The file format of 'something.xls' doesn't match the extension...."

I also think that you're the last person who should be trying to critique anyone's grammar, whether it is their second language or not. Surely you have better things to do.

 

[neuroman9999]

thanks Darrell. and yes, I've got better things to do than to read your stuff. as it turns out though, I think I actually was mistaken about the grammER used here! and of course, misspelled by me. GRAMMAR. =) LOL

 

[The_Doc_Man]

While still employed, I was required to write excruciatingly correct documentation for the U.S. Navy. I also am an amateur writer who makes English his stock in trade. I would have to say that the example you called out uses totally correct English.

"The file format and extension of ... don't match..." represents excellent grammar. If you tried to diagram this (remember sentence-diagramming in grade school?), you would find that the compound subject is "format AND extension" - which by the rules of English represents a plural subject. The verb form "don't" is appropriate for plural subjects.

In New Orleans, we have a saying about people who live in the upper Garden District. They can be just as dumb as anyone else most of the time, but at least they assure that their tattoos are spelled correctly.

I would start checking your tats to see if you have any errors in them.

 

[neuroman9999]

I would start checking your tats to see if you have any errors in them.

spoken like a true 70 year old.

thanks for the correction. I found your response pretty freaking funny. but then again, it certainly was my error. no doubt about that. mark this occassion, as it doesn't happen often. I'm still too smart for you, but the way.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'm still too smart for you, but the way.

So smart as to mis-state the common phrase "by the way"?

I hear you brag about your smarts. A long time ago a friend of mine asked some loud-mouthed braggart about something dumb the braggart had done. The know-it-all responded that he could not have done something so dumb because of how smart he was. My friend's response? "If you are so damned smart, why the Hell ain't you rich?"

 

[neuroman9999]

"If you are so damned smart, why the Hell ain't you rich?"

because I choose not to be, GRANDPA. riches don't earn you ANYTHING. haven't you learned that about me by now? If you haven't, obviously you're a little too old to be remembering what you read on this community's board. I have no desire to be rich, nor will I ever. And, if you want to know what the future holds for me, more than likely I'm going to make quite a few appearances in various parts of this country or the world in areas where the world says I don't belong. And the reason of course is to show people in those areas what true faith is all about. And that's something of course you do not understand.

On a side note to this, I have a remembrance you might be interested in. My father, long ago, was trying to gather marketing data for an email campaign. He called a firm out in New York City who was advertising online that they had bulk email data for low cost. He bought a package and got 50% bounce rate from the receiving email servers when using Constant Contact to send marking emails. He called the firm back and complained to the woman that their data was seriously outdated and that she and her company were crooks. And her response to him was this:

I may be a crook, but I'm a rich bitch too

It is for that very reason that I took all my money out of a local bank and put it in the bank run by Farmers. Because the one I had my money in was in serious growth and they were squeezing every freaking penny out of people they could. They were connected to all sorts of external websites, including facebook, to track everything that website users do. And of course, there's nothing illegal about it, but I find out at the wrong time and it unfortunately did not make me very happy. see attached images for the nonsense these idiots were pulling:

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yet another exercise in self-aggrandizement. Do you HONESTLY think any of us care?

By the way, the last time you were here, you left your jester's cap.

>>yawn<<

 

[neuroman9999]

of course you don't care. I'm just having fun. If you don't like it, why don't you just ban me again? but of course, you won't do that because I have crossed the ""insult line"", as you have specified.

 

[Vassago]

The irony of this thread...

 

[neuroman9999]

The irony of this thread...

I thought you were going to disappear forever?

 

[Vassago]

I thought you were going to disappear forever?

Who said that?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you don't like it, why don't you just ban me again?

I ban people for vulgarity and for personally-directed insults. Other than the fact that your over-the-top post is an insult to our intelligence, you didn't break a rule - and your insult was not directed to a specific member. So, not really worth a ban. Not worth a notice either.

 

[neuroman9999]

speaking of calling ME out on my ""grammER"" ERROR, you have just fallen victim to the same mistake that so many other technology professionals do. and what it shows is that you're so technically competent, you don't know how to write English too well. This is the most common mistake I see in America, and it never ends:

Other than the fact that your over-the-top post is an insult to our intelligence

CORRECTION:

Other than the fact that YOU'RE over-the-top post is an insult to our intelligence

so, now you've learned something new. Did someone say something about their low level of intelligence? hmmm....I'm sure I heard that somewhere.

 

[neuroman9999]

Who said that?

YOU DID!

 

[Darrell]

This post really is the gift that keeps on giving....

 

[Vassago]

YOU DID!

Where?