4 ms·
Don't forget the rules of British English that make it very clear that the grammatical construction: "you should consider" means "you must in all circumstances
by etothepii 2y ago
Don't forget the rules of British English that make it very clear that the grammatical construction: "you should consider" means "you must in all circumstances save for the immediate alternate outcome being a genocide."
- randomifcpfan 2y agoThanks for explaining! That’s quite different from the US English (and RFC English) meaning of “should”.
- etothepii 2y agoThis translation guide is usually helpful. https://polish2english.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/55551980-anglo-eu-translation-guide1.pdf https://polish2english.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/55551980-... I'm afraid I don't know what RFC English is and neither does Google.
- valley_guy_12 2y agoHuh, for me the very first non-ad result for googleing RFC English is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments, which is the correct citation.
- etothepii 2y agoFor me it was to do with Rugby Football.
- layer8 2y agoTo be fair, here is the RFC meaning: SHOULD This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full implications must be understood and carefully weighed before choosing a different course. It means you can’t simply ignore it, and instead have to have compelling reasons to justify any deviation.
- valley_guy_12 2y agoUnfortunately, in many organizations, "the library we use doesn't follow this recommendation" is a valid compelling reason. Which means that in practice "SHOULD" effectively means "WOULD BE NICE IF".