Formerly laughable item descriptions • Page 63 • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Formerly laughable item descriptions
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Zenopus
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 4:49 pm

Interesting miniatures with this basic set:

Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set | eBay

"This is a played with set but I believe it is complete except for the 1 small soldier"

Perhaps good for a little "Sturmgeshultz and Sorcery"...

:wink:

Beyondthebreach
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:16 pm

Anyone need a set of dices?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

(I think that is the plural plural of die. Ya know, 1 die, a set of dice, a ton of dices)

"Gleemonex makes it feel like it's seventy-two degrees in your head... all... the... time! "

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:45 pm

Beyondthebreach wrote:Anyone need a set of dices?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

(I think that is the plural plural of die. Ya know, 1 die, a set of dice, a ton of dices)

Well, one could conceivably imagine some sort of crazy dice variants -- for example, shaped like polyhedrons instead of the standard cube. If these variants actually existed, refering to all the multiple types of dice as "dices" could be considered correct. :wink:

For example:
person --> people --> peoples
*die --> dice --> dices
*mouse --> mice --> mices

Beyondthebreach
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:46 pm

deimos3428 wrote:
For example:
person --> people --> peoples
*die --> dice --> dices
*mouse --> mice --> mices

hobbit - - > hobbits - - > hobbitses

"Gleemonex makes it feel like it's seventy-two degrees in your head... all... the... time! "

Kaskoid
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:16 pm

Wrong.

The plural form of the word die is dice. THere is no such thing as dices.

Goose--Geese no geeses.

Mouse--Mice no mices

I teach the American version of English; the State of Ohio thinks that I know what I'm talking about and teaching--they licensed me....

PS Hobbitses only works if your name is Smeagol...

Nemesis of the Annoyingly Dense
Guidelines, not rules...

Beyondthebreach
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:22 pm

How about sheeps? Or Oxens

"Gleemonex makes it feel like it's seventy-two degrees in your head... all... the... time! "

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:24 pm

Sheepies and Oxes.

Oh, and 'mices' is a word. It's in Tom & Jerry.

And does that mean the plural of 'moose' is 'mose'?

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:40 pm

Oh fer chrissakes. It was a joke. :roll:

However, since we're making such a fuss about it, what's wrong with stating:

*Some mices prefer feta, while others prefer cheddar.

The word "mice" in this context is semantically equivalent to "singular species or breed of mouse", not "more than one mouse", and is therefore a singular noun. The correct plural form would normally be created by the addition of -s, in English. So why does it seem wrong?

It can be argued that the final -s is not overt, as the singular form already ends in a sibilant. Most singulars of this type will, as they are based on English plurals. This explains why "peoples" is correct, but "*mices" is not. So it appears to revert back to "mice".

This also explains why words borrowed from other languages (eg. "spaghetti/spaghettis"), are overtly double-pluralized in English. This is not necessarily true of all dialects of English, and should not be assumed. Some dialects do indeed imitate Smeagol's speech; it is not a phenomenon Tolkein invented.

"Hobbitses" is incorrect, however, unless the word is being used in the same fashion -- the simple plural would of course be "hobbits".

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:03 pm

You won't win the 'mices' arguement, Deim'. Not with an English teacher (even one that teaches American English). In the example you've given, one should expand the sentence and correct the grammer, and then the 'mices' problem no longer exists... Some breeds of mice prefer feta, while others prefer cheddar.

What you could argue is that it is correct phonetically.

I must be bored.... Sitting here discussing grammer. :roll:

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

Dungeondad
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:05 pm

I might have to have beer; or beers (but not beerses) after reading this thread! :lol:

Well THAT went over like a turd in a punchbowl!

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:08 pm

Have a keg.

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

ExTSR
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:00 pm

My grammer would never read this thread. She's too old, anyhow.

Rhyming feta with cheddah? Hmmm....

Die v dice, eh? What's the singular of Rice, Rouse? (as in Lice & louse)

In Cleveland, the mice
have infested the hice...

(that's houses for you UK folks)

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:13 pm

I'm with Deimos on this one. First, it was obviously a joke; there was no need to start whipping out credentials :roll:

; second, even if it wasn't a joke, I don't think it's safe to ever assume anything where the English language is concerned (especially the American-ized version).

English is not nearly as internally consisent as French, Spanish, or just about any other language of your choice â€” it is full of contradictions, inconsistencies, and exceptions. Is "dices" really so hard to believe when dealing with a language that pronounces "bomb," "comb," and "tomb" three different ways?

FormCritic
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:28 pm

deimos3428 wrote:*Some mices prefer feta, while others prefer cheddar.

This must be an East Coast accent thing.

   Here in the more refined West, "cheddar" rhymes with "sweater."

   That is, unless, on the East Coast, "sweater" also rhymes with "feta."

   Do people in Eastern Canada also have accents similar to New York or Boston? Serious...do they?

Does everyone in the East sound like a Kennedy?

(For instance, in Toronto, does "decade" (DECK-aid) sound exactly like "decayed?")

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

Kaskoid
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:20 pm

I took it to be tongue-in-cheek.

If you have two large herbivorous semi-aquatic mammals, you have two Moose, not mooses. If you grow two varieties of the cereal graiin called rice, you have two rice, not rices.

I LOVE American English because it is a living, evolving language. Unlike French, where they pass laws to keep it "PURE".

Nemesis of the Annoyingly Dense
Guidelines, not rules...

faro
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:30 pm

Kaskoid wrote:I LOVE American English because it is a living, evolving language. Unlike French, where they pass laws to keep it "PURE".

=> Yahoo! GeoCities: Get a web site with easy-to-use site building tools.

Problem solved... :twisted:

=
*g*. Apols. for the OT. I could've sworn Mr. Jinx was even going to turn up at one point, there...

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:11 pm

MShipley88 wrote:
deimos3428 wrote:*Some mices prefer feta, while others prefer cheddar.

   This must be an East Coast accent thing.

   Here in the more refined West, "cheddar" rhymes with "sweater."

   That is, unless, on the East Coast, "sweater" also rhymes with "feta."

   Do people in Eastern Canada also have accents similar to New York or Boston? Serious...do they?

   Does everyone in the East sound like a Kennedy?

   (For instance, in Toronto, does "decade" (DECK-aid) sound exactly like "decayed?")

Mark

Feta and cheddar do not rhyme in my dialect, I'm just not very creative with my cheese types. I knew I should have said havarti.

"decayed" is most assuredly different than "decade".

The vowel quality of the first syllable is either "dee" or "deh" (sorry, no IPA symbols, so I'm winging it), depending on whom your speaking with.

Speakers that do not differentiate the words by vowel quality, do so by stress -- "decade" stresses the first syllable, "decayed" the last. (I didn't do an exhaustive survey...)

Deadlord
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:17 pm

Quite kor-rekt.
We Easterners speak propah English. Everyone else screws it up.

If you hit a Rowsdower, you get to keep it.

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