Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!newsfeed.fsmpi.rwth-aachen.de!news-2.dfn.de!news.dfn.de!npeer.de.kpn-eurorings.net!npeer-ng0.de.kpn-eurorings.net!feed.news.schlund.de!schlund.de!news.online.de!not-for-mail From: Stefan Schwarzer Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: Grammar question: Englisn and Python: qualified names Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:47:36 +0200 Organization: 1&1 Internet AG Lines: 29 Message-ID: <516B9478.6020607@sschwarzer.net> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: p54b99cb1.dip0.t-ipconnect.de Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: online.de 1366004856 31238 84.185.156.177 (15 Apr 2013 05:47:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@einsundeins.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:47:36 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.24) Gecko/20100411 Thunderbird/2.0.0.24 Mnenhy/0.7.6.666 In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:43604 Hi Chris, On 2013-04-14 23:50, Chris Angelico wrote: > Quirky question time! > > When you read out a qualified name, eg collections.OrderedDict, do you > read the qualifier ("collections dot ordered dict"), or do you elide > it ("ordered dict")? I ask because it makes a difference to talking > about just one of them: > > ... or possibly a collections.OrderedDict... > ... or possibly an collections.OrderedDict... > > Written, the latter looks completely wrong; but if the name is read in > its short form, with the "collections" part being implicit, then "an" > is clearly correct! What do you think, experts and others? I think if you _write_ "collections.OrderedDict", the article you _write_ in front should match this. The phrase "an collections.OrderedDict" looks odd to me, and if I read it somewhere, it wouldn't cross my mind that the writer used "an collections.OrderedDict" with the idea not to pronounce "collections". ;-) In my opinion, this is too subtle. On the other hand, when you _speak_ about the ordered dict, use the article matching what you actually say. Best regards, Stefan