Re: Verbs form in UI actions

["David Lodge" <dave cirt net>]

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:23:29 -0000, Dale Gulledge <dgulledge gmail com>  
wrote:
> > I wonder whether most English speakers think of them as imperatives, and
> > what languages other than English don't think of them as infinitives.
> I think it is important to keep in mind that none of us are  
> representative
> of typical English-speaking computer users on this issue.

I think, as a native English speaker, I'll step in at this point...

> My guess is that most English-speaking users don't pay much attention to
> what form of the verb is used in menus.  There are three reasons.  The  
> first
> is that in English, the imperative is the infinitive without the  
> auxiliary
> word "to" in front of it.

Strictly, this is an English grammatical argument which grammarians  
disagree on. The difference 'twixt the imperative and the infinitive is  
given by context and placement (generally the imperative will be first in  
the clause), sometimes they are indicated by prepositions or punctuation,  
e.g. "go" (infinitive) may become "to go"; "go" (imperative) may become  
"go!".

But, as Modern English has watered down verb tenses a lot, we don't really  
have an imperative case anymore (not since Olde Englisc). So imperative ==  
infinitive (for most verbs).

So in conclusion:

> As long
> as the action performed is what the user wanted and expected, the exact
> words aren't that important.

It's really what makes sense in the language that is being translated to.  
I often wonder whether English, with its lax structure and promiscuous  
grammar, is the best language to be the base language.

If it helps, even the flavours of English can get into arguments about  
what the best tense of the English verb is, especially when we come to  
made up verbs like "colorize" or "ellipisize" which do not translate from  
the American dialect of English to other dialects of English very well.

dave