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Website commands - imperative or infinitive

от Alkanadi, 11 август 2015

Съобщения: 5

Език: English

Alkanadi (Покажи профила) 11 август 2015, 08:25:13

On this website, they use the command forms of the verbs with a U ending:
http://esperanto.cri.cn/581/2015/08/11/179s179068....
Komentu Printu Fermu
On other websites they use the infinitive verb form. Which way is better?

tommjames (Покажи профила) 11 август 2015, 08:33:59

This question has come up before

I prefer infinitive myself as I think of the text on buttons and menus to be like labels that describe what the button does, more than as a command I'm giving to the computer. As to which way is better, I think that's just a matter of opinion. Both methods have their pros and cons.

Fenris_kcf (Покажи профила) 11 август 2015, 10:52:28

And another thread about this.

Rujo (Покажи профила) 11 август 2015, 11:57:59

IMHO, it seems to me that when we are [re]starting something, we should be using the infinitive and when the task is going on we should be using the imperative form.

DuckFiasco (Покажи профила) 11 август 2015, 21:21:30

The -u mood is not technically a command in Esperanto (imperative). It's called the "jussive" mood in grammar geek speak, which means it shows duties, desires, requests, recommendations, and so forth, not just direct commands.
So from this view, you can see "Malfermu" as what you want to happen, not an order you're giving to the computer.

Other languages do it differently, of course. For instance, French uses the infinitive in computer dialogs, recipes, general instructions, and so forth. There's a logic to this, so I've also seen -i used in Esperanto computer programs.

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