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Bug#419535: E-Mail vs. E-Mails



On Wed, Apr 18, 2007 at 01:33:41PM +0200, Frans Pop wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 April 2007 10:13, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > > "e-mail" (whether hyphenated, or not) is both singular *and* plural.
> > > Thus, I can write "I sent email to John" (meaning one message); or "I
> > > sent email to John" (meaning two-or-more messages).

> > No, the plural is "e-mails" (or "emails").  "e-mail" is the singular
> > and is also a *mass noun*.

> OTOH, using the singular as a "mass noun" in this context would not be 
> incorrect, would it?

Yes, it would also be correct.  Note that it would subtly change the
*meaning* of the sentence, so it would not be appropriate to consider this a
"correction".

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/



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