Bug#547477: update-manager-gnome: "which does neither remove" - -EENGLISH

Steve Langasek vorlon at debian.org
Mon Sep 21 03:35:02 UTC 2009


On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 12:22:32AM +0200, Emilio Pozuelo Monfort wrote:
> Steve Langasek wrote:
> > Launching update-manager is sid gives me the following message:

> >   Do you want to perform a safe-upgrade, which does neither remove packages
> >   nor install new ones?

> > Aside from "safe-upgrade" being aptitude-specific jargon that doesn't belong
> > here, this is not proper English.  It should be written:

> >   Do you want to perform a safe-upgrade, which does not remove packages
> >   or install new ones?

> Just curious, is this a matter of British/American English? I was taught in
> school the former option is fine IIRC.

No, it's not.  There are two possible ways to construct this in English:

   "[this] neither removes packages nor installs new ones"

or

   "[this] does not remove packages [n]or install new ones"

The "[this] does neither remove [...]" is not something that occurs in
American or British English, TTBOMK.

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