focuses, foci
Torsten
when is which plural used and how is it pronounced.
My motivation is, I need the plural very often
( hundreds of times) in a user guide for a software,
the meaning of a single focus in this software is very
general in a sense of 'viewed group of objects', not specific
at all. And I have a bit freedom to dictate the term ( I could also
give a kind of flavour here), so if I say it's called 'foci' , then
the user has to adapt to it. I have to decide for one general plural
term, I cannot switch between them. 'focuses' is the first term in the
dictionary, but I find it a bit inconvenient to write or speak.
I'm not native english, personally I've never heard the plural
of focus.
Thank you
Torsten
J. W. Love
bit inconvenient to write or speak.>>
Webster and OED1 list _foci_ first and _focuses_ second. OED1 adds that, in
England, _focuses_ is "usually written irregularly *focusses.*" Good luck!
Washington, DC: Taxation Without Representation.
perchprism
news:92q47f$8bl$00$1...@news.t-online.com...
You should use "focuses" ("focusses" outside America, I believe). "Foci"
would not be readily understood to be the plural of "focus" by certain of
your readers, and since it's your term, you get to choose which plural to
use. Use the one that presents the least difficulty in reading--it ain't
literature.
I asked myself what would be the plural in the politician's "The foc(?) of
our investigations....," and it's "focuses" and not "foci." "Foci" I would
reserve for scientific or mathematical use.
As to any inconvenience, remember that "focuses" is also third person
singular for the verb, so it will present no difficulties for the native
speaker. Many, though, have noticed the infelicity of the multiple siblants
English generates, and you are in good company disliking them.
--
Perchprism
(southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia)
John Seeliger
<92q47f$8bl$00$1...@news.t-online.com>...
I think foci is pronounced like foe+sigh. I think loci rhymes with foci
(low+sigh).
Alan Jones
(By the way, though British, I've never seen "focusses" for the plural noun,
though it appears sometimes for the present tense 3rd person singular verb.)
Alan Jones
John Varela
> the meaning of a single focus in this software is very
> general in a sense of 'viewed group of objects', not specific
> at all.
Can you accept a different word? "Focus" is a term from optics that doesn't
seem to me a good choice to mean "viewed group of objects".
The difficulty in choosing a word, if I understand you correctly, is that a
single "focus" contains multiple objects, so the plural of focus means
multiple groups of multiple objects. If so, what's wrong with calling a group
of objects a group? A set? An object set? Or pack, deck, collection, flock,
bunch, etc.
--
John Varela
McLean, VA USA
Torsten
"John Varela"
> Can you accept a different word?
No, no :), the word 'focus' is definite, and I cannot change it and I'm not
allowed to do.
This has several reasons, but the most important are:
- other words like group, set, window, frame ... are already to special and
already
used for other things
- we use it for a viewed area which can contain objects or could be empty as
well
( In my last post I shortened the description a bit )
....
Focus is really the best, I only looked for the plural :)
Torsten
John Seeliger
Can you give a few examples of how you are using it? A few sentences?
Mark Barratt
"John Seeliger" <jsee...@prodigy.net> wrote
>
> I think foci is pronounced like foe+sigh. I think loci rhymes
with foci
> (low+sigh).
And COED9 agrees with you, to my surprise[1]. This seems like a
good enough reason for preferring 'focus(s)es' - at least
everyone will pronounce it alike.
Incidentally, COED (A British dictionary, in case anyone didn't
know) gives only "focuses" as the plural but does allow that the
inflections 'focused' and 'focusing' may have the 's' doubled.
Since it forgoes mention of the third person singular, we must
conclude that it feels that 'focuses' is the only correct form.
[1] ...about 'foci', that is. For 'loci' it offers /-saI/, /-kaI/
and /-ki/ as alternatives.
Regards
Mark Barratt
Mark Barratt
I (Mark Barratt) wrote in message
news:3a51fff3$0$20281$73be...@news.be.uu.net...
>
> Incidentally, COED (A British dictionary, in case anyone didn't
Sorry, I've just re-read that. I mean that it doesn't give
'focusses'. It does, as I implied already, give 'foci'.
Apologies for the contradiction.
Mark Barratt