Got a Doubt ! Wanting for your Help ! Plz make it ASAP !

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 01:55:44 +0000, Denis McMahon wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Nov 2013 18:22:29 +0530, Bharath Kummar wrote:

>> Could you PLEASE provide me with the codes (codes only for the asked
>> queries) ?
> 
> The codes are:
> 
> 1) 7373a28109a7c4473a475b2137aa92d5
> 2) f2fae9a4ad5ded75e4d8ac34b90d5c9c
> 3) 935544894ca6ad7239e0df048b9ec3e5
> 4) b1bc9942d029a4a67e4b368a1ff8d883
> 
> Please contact your local government eavesdropping agency for assistance
> on decoding the codes.

I'm not an expert on Indian English, but I understand that in that 
dialect it is grammatically correct to say "the codes", just as in UK and 
US English it is grammatically correct to say "the programs".

In other words, in UK/US English, "code" in the sense of programming code 
is an uncountable noun, like "rice" or "air", while in Indian English it 
is a countable noun like cats or programs. We have to say "give me two 
samples of code", or perhaps "two code samples", while an Indian speaker 
might say "give me two codes".

As this is an international forum, it behoves us all to make allowances 
for slight difference in dialect.

Aside: I love the fact that pea, as in green peas or black-eyed peas, is 
a back-formation from an uncountable noun. Originally English had the 
word "pease", as in "pease porridge hot" from the nursery rhyme. Like 
wheat, rice, barley and others, You would have to say something like 
"give me a grain of pease" if you only wanted one. Eventually, people 
began to assume that "pease", or "peas", was the plural and therefore 
"pea" must be the singular. I look forward to the day that "rice" is the 
plural of "ri" :-)


-- 
Steven