3 ms·
Some interesting comments about the plural of die, apparently all three forms are commonly used (die, dies, dice)
by haunter 3y ago
Some interesting comments about the plural of die, apparently all three forms are commonly used (die, dies, dice)
- ooterness 3y agoLinguistic drift IMHO. Formally, "dice" is the plural of "die". Less formally, "dice" are cubes with numbers on them and "die" is a completely separate word.
- someone7x 3y agoI’ve heard “dice” for singles: you’ll need to roll one dice here. I never asked, but I want to believe their internal representation of “1D6” is one-dice-six. Sorta like reading “1 x 6” as “one _times_ six” instead of “one _time_ six” Words are fun.
- polishdude20 3y agoDice? That's if you're talking about rolling the dice. Is it really used for these types of "dies"?
- calamari4065 3y agoTechnically die is the singular and dice is the plural form of the cubes you roll for numbers. Then there's the other die, as in die-cast. I think these are typically referred to as dies in the plural. I'm not sure if this terminology is still in use, it seems to have been replaced with mold. Then the other other die, referring to the fragment of silicon inside an integrated circuit. I've seen dice used more commonly, but both forms are in active use. It's one of those frustrating inconsistencies of the English language.
- Doxin 3y ago> Then there's the other die, as in die-cast. I think these are typically referred to as dies in the plural. I'm not sure if this terminology is still in use, it seems to have been replaced with mold. I think die is still used when referring to metal stamping equipment and similar, but casting equipment is usually referred to with mold.
- Finnucane 3y agoIn all my years in publishing, I've never heard anyone refer to jacket/spine stamping dies as dice.
- MakeThemMoney 3y ago> Heard Don't they sound the same?
- pwagland 3y agoFunnily enough, I would argue that dice and dies sound different, phonetically: dies daɪz dice daɪs
- HNDen21 3y agoTo me the i sound is shorter for dice versus dies
- Finnucane 3y agoNot in an email. Also, no, the pronunciation is distinct. At least around here.
- BenjiWiebe 3y agoPrize vs price (US English)
- dist-epoch 3y agoMore and more English speakers (and readers) are not native. They are more likely to use (and understand) -s plurals.
- Erratic6576 3y agoYeah Languages with histories of adult learning have been argued to be morphologically simpler, less redundant, and more regular/transparent [2], [7], [28]–[30]. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008559 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
- Clamchop 3y agoNative speakers are of course also very likely to pluralize nouns in the regular way when they don't know the irregular form. Usually, only very common nouns can sustain irregular pluralization. Perhaps dice carries on at all because it is often used both as the singular and plural. I can't see any reason to think that native speakers are changing their patterns much because of what non-native speakers do or understand.