Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 15:16:19 -0700 From: Matthew Hunt <mph@astro.caltech.edu> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au>, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: grammar Message-ID: <20030530221619.GA41668@wopr.caltech.edu> In-Reply-To: <20030531080645.Q33085@welearn.com.au> References: <3ECD3A8C.1040506@potentialtech.com> <00ae01c32668$2ff5ad70$2441d5cc@nitanjared> <20030531072026.O33085@welearn.com.au> <20030530213625.GA41089@wopr.caltech.edu> <20030531080645.Q33085@welearn.com.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sat, May 31, 2003 at 08:06:45AM +1000, Sue Blake wrote: > Tell me, how would you follow the following (hypothetical) instruction? > > In case you run out of memory, don't run all of the programs together. > > Is it something to do as a precaution, or a response to take when > an unlikely situation occurs? I would read it as a precaution and > make a workplace rule that we must follow it. I suppose I would read it the same way, although the sentence strikes me as odd for some reason. I can't remember ever coming across a written instruction in the "In case X do Y" format, and evidently there's a good reason people don't write that way. I think it's because of the "In case" being at the start of the sentence instead of the end, but I can't put my finger on it. Do you know the national origin of this documentation? Was it generally satisfactory otherwise? I'm wondering if it was written by a non-native speaker. -- Matthew Hunt <mph@astro.caltech.edu> * Stay close to the Vorlon. http://www.pobox.com/~mph/ *
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20030530221619.GA41668>