Recent searches
Search options
This joke [https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/111511784701760258] and @AdrianRiskin’s reply [https://kolektiva.social/@AdrianRiskin/111511809273857650] got me thinking:
What •linguistic• pitfalls commonly trip up students / beginners / newcomers in software, math, and stats? I’m looking for ground-level stuff, not esoterica, e.g.:
matrix / matrices
vertex / vertices
parenthesis / parentheses
“code” is a mass noun, no plural
“data” is a mass noun when it refers to bits/bytes (but “datum” still exists in stats/science contexts, tricky one)
What else?
phenomenon / phenomena
vortex / vortices <-- (some controversy about this one)
fourm / fora
Oh yeah -- recent usage be damned, I still use:
"less", for the continuous case, and "fewer" for discrete. fiteme :;
@zerotensor Yeah, I’d say that “vortexes” might be widely accepted enough at this point to call it also correct, and I’d even venture that “forums” is preferred in software contexts. Language change in progress before our very eyes!