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Website commands - imperative or infinitive

od Alkanadi, 11 sierpnia 2015

Wpisy: 5

Język: English

Alkanadi (Pokaż profil) 11 sierpnia 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 (Pokaż profil) 11 sierpnia 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 (Pokaż profil) 11 sierpnia 2015, 10:52:28

And another thread about this.

Rujo (Pokaż profil) 11 sierpnia 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 (Pokaż profil) 11 sierpnia 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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