密歇根新闻广播 电邮的复数形式

 

Almost as long as there's been email, there's been the question of what the plural¹ of "email" should be.

A listener named Steve Roznowski reminded us of this recently, when he pointed² out that Professor Anne Curzan says "emails." Roznowski says he uses "email" for both the plural and singular form.

At this point, "email" and "emails" are both considered standard for plural use, but how did we get here?

The word "email" first shows up in 1970. The Oxford³ English Dictionary has a quote from 1979 that describes a message-sending system known as "electronic mail" or "email."

There used to be a lot a lot of confusion over how to spell this term. Some of you probably remember capitalizing the “e” or using a hyphen between "e" and "mail." It actually took the New York Times' style guide until 2013 to authorize⁴ us to get rid of the hyphen.

Tossing out a hyphen may seem trivial, but it shows how over time, "email" has drifted away from "mail." That is, "email" has become its own word as opposed to where it derives⁵ from, "electronic mail."

When it comes to the plural form of mail, i.e. "snail⁶ mail," we talk about "pieces of mail" or "letters." We don't say "mails," but we do say "emails." More evidence of “email” drifting from its roots.

At its core, this is really about countable⁷ vs. uncountable nouns. A noun like "water" is uncountable. In order to count it, we talk about drops of water or glasses of water. On the other hand, a noun like "letter" is countable -- we can talk about one letter, or we can talk about hundreds of letters.

There is a process where uncountable nouns become countable.

Take “beer,” for example. You can say “beer” to refer to the liquid on its own -- "I was drinking beer last night.” But you can also say, "I had three beers last night,” in which you're talking about glasses of beer or bottles of beer. It means something different than just “beer.”

The same thing has happened with "email." It can refer to a particular system of sending messages, in which case it's uncountable. It can also refer to the messages that we send over email, the system, in which case it is countable.

That leaves us with two plural forms for email. You can say "three emails" or "three email." Since they're both acceptable, the choice is yours.

1 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

2 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 authorize   

v.授权，委任；批准，认可

参考例句：

• He said that he needed to get his supervisor to authorize my refund.他说必须让主管人员批准我的退款。
• Only the President could authorize the use of the atomic bomb.只有总统才能授权使用原子弹。

5 derives   

v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• English derives in the main from the common Germanic stock. 英语主要源于日耳曼语系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derives his income from freelance work. 他以自由职业获取收入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 snail   

n.蜗牛

参考例句：

• Snail is a small plant-eating creature with a soft body.蜗牛是一种软体草食动物。
• Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.放假前的时间过得很慢。

7 countable   

adj.可数的，可以计算的

参考例句：

• The word "person" is a countable noun.person这个词是个可数名词。
• Countable nouns have singular and plural forms.可数名词有单数和复数之分。