None (Re: [kde-doc-english]small error in kdelibs.po:)

[Thomas Diehl]

Am Samstag, 27. April 2002 00:58 schrieb Malcolm Hunter:

> > None
>
> Fixed in HEAD. Thanks.

May I point out that the use of "none" (in any spelling) is kind of 
unfixable for some languages, eg German?

The problem is that the usual German translation for "none" is an adjective 
(not an adverb) and, therefore, has different forms for cases and genders 
in our language. 

IOW: In German "none" becomes the first part a split string and without the 
knowledge which kind of noun is going to follow and whether it is singular 
or plural we can not really translate it correctly. We never know if the 
translation should be "Keiner", "Keine" or "Keines". (The only unflected 
alternative would be "Nichts" which sounds silly since it really means 
"nothing" instead of "none". Other solutions are just too ugly like 
"Keine(r,s)".)

I guess this was about clear as mud for people who don't understand German 
or a similar language. But the only way out for us would be to avoid the 
isolated use of "none" as much as possible and to always use it in 
connection with the noun(s) it refers to. Or at least give some context in 
a comment.

Regards,

Thomas


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