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#161 [PATCH] Grammatical Error in Chapter 1 "none of them is." sb "none of them are."

Invalid
nobody
None
Medium
Defect
2012-04-11
2012-04-10
Anonymous
No

Originally created by: squareon...@gmail.com

Please describe the problem you found.  Try to avoid referring to "page
numbers", as those are subject to change over time.  If you need to, quote
the book paragraph(s) that are incorrect, and recommend corrections.

Grammatical error in paragraph:

A Subversion client commits (that is, communicates the changes made to) any number of files and directories as a single atomic
transaction. By atomic transaction, we mean simply this: either all of the changes are accepted into the repository, or none of them
is. Subversion tries to retain this atomicity in the face of program crashes, system crashes, network problems, and other users' ac-
tions.

Should read:

A Subversion client commits (that is, communicates the changes made to) any number of files and directories as a single atomic
transaction. By atomic transaction, we mean simply this: either all of the changes are accepted into the repository, or none of them
are. Subversion tries to retain this atomicity in the face of program crashes, system crashes, network problems, and other users' ac-
tions.

The changes we are discussing are plural.

Discussion

  • Anonymous

    Anonymous - 2012-04-10

    Originally posted by: cmpilato

    Actually I'm pretty sure the text is correct. "None" expands grammatically to "not one" and is therefore singular. "Not one of them is..." is correct.

    Status: Invalid

     
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous - 2012-04-11

    Originally posted by: squareon...@gmail.com

    After searching this and double checking, you're right - but for the wrong reason.

    Both "is" and "are" are acceptable when using none when referring to a plural.

    Apologies for making a common mis-correction, this may be a difference between US and UK English.

     

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