話說昨天審讀一份技術文件，見到同事將 0.5 metres 的 s 刪掉，改成 0.5 metre，深感奇怪，立即跑去問個究竟。同事說：「我查牛津辭典，見附錄那些零點幾的例子全部都沒加 s，所以就刪掉。」
雖然牛津辭典甚具權威，但栗當然不會單憑當中一個表，就修改公司的文件，於是再查
Practical English Usage 和 Practical English Grammar（同是牛津出品）。可是前者說要加 s，後者的例子卻一律沒有 s，到底是哪種才對？
問外藉同事，他說口語一般會用眾數。另一位同事說：「連 zero 也用眾數，零點幾用眾數又有甚麼問題？」不過，同事補一句：「書面語跟口語可能有出入，還是再查查看吧。」
看到這裡，大家應該猜到，栗還未找到答案。花了大半天時間還是沒結果，除了悲鳴，只能說：I hate English。(*middle finger*)
Hey I taught that in my WPE class. Any decimal other than 1.0 must have an "s".
回覆刪除[版主回覆06/24/2013 20:48:08]It's a trivial thing, but my colleague keeps arguing with me, citing examples from dictionaries and grammar books. I must say I'm really displeased about this.
[The Teacher回覆06/24/2013 13:31:12]I didn't even know this rule was remotely controversial...
[The Teacher回覆06/24/2013 13:30:25]I don't know what a "style guide" is, but the rule is decimals always have "s", except for 1.0, but fractions, like one third, or two thirds, of a metre, then the "s" goes to the denominator if the numerator is not a one.
[版主回覆06/16/2013 12:13:35]But style guides of various big publishers say no s, unfortunately :(
咦，妳睇過邊幾本Style Guide呢？的確似乎莫衷一是！
回覆刪除等我都問吓狐狸先生先！
[版主回覆06/16/2013 17:48:23]佢本都係冇s……
1 是單數，多過1才是眾數，0.5少於1，所以不能列入眾數，冇s。
回覆刪除應該係咁至啱卦。
[版主回覆06/18/2013 06:10:23]想法對，但外國人話用法不同了，無奈書本還沒更新。
狐狸先生話：0.5 metres but 0.5 m.！
回覆刪除[版主回覆06/19/2013 08:50:45]佢後面係咪有SI Unit / measurement 的表？應該是表格內的用法 (OALD 也是類似情況)
[大猩猩回覆06/18/2013 23:03:52]LDOCE好似冇提過！
[版主回覆06/18/2013 10:16:07]係我同事話冇架 (我根本就冇果本字典)。是否最新版已經改了？
[大猩猩回覆06/18/2013 07:13:00]妳喺邊本睇到話無s，第四版定第五版？
[版主回覆06/18/2013 06:11:46]咁得意？朗文本字典冇s架咼……