• SatanicNotMessianic
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    1 year ago

    Welcome!

    While what you’ve said is correct, your application is, unfortunately, incorrect. Once again, the OP did not use the helping verb “have” in front of the pp form of the verb “to see,” which is required. If you would perform a simple search of similar posts in a microblogging format, you will discover that while there is a convention of treating the initial article as implied (“Heard the new Taylor Swift single - amazing!”), there is not a similar established pattern of eliding entire parts of a verb form.

    Again, there are similar patterns in other vernaculars. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in particular uses forms of verbs that differ from those of Standard American English (SAE). AAVE (as well as other English vernaculars such as in the south of Ireland)) use verb forms such as the habitual be (“Mama be doing laundry”) to indicate that the action is performed repeatedly.

    In any case, SAE would prefer the standard past tense in this formulation, again with the subject “I” left as implied (“Saw that those nasty Welshmen are acting up again. Fsfafagafacaga!”). It is entirely possible that the author is using a non-standard English vernacular that is perfectly legitimate but with which O am unfamiliar. That’s fine, but it does not decrease the irony of their “Are language is English!!1) post.

    And regarding your final sentence, “None of them are” is the more standard formulation in English because it refers to “a number of problems,” which is plural. The singular “none” is reserved for when the meaning is a single exception (“My choice is none of the above, implying that I get to make a single choice).

    Hope that helps! Unlike most people, I like the Dutch!

    • Bob@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      English is my native language; I speak a British dialect and the original post is in British English. “I’ve just xyz” is standard outside American English and omitting “I’ve” is extremely common. I thought I was clear about that. In fact it seems like you haven’t quite paid attention to, or haven’t understood, everything I’ve written, because I quite expressly said I’m not Dutch as well and you seem to think I’m Dutch.

      Regarding the is/are thing: you could also say “a number of problems with the post, but one of them is”, and “none” is a short way of saying “not one”, hence “none is”; in fact you’d instinctively say “a number of… but not one of them is”. I’d say “none are” though out of habit. Your “a number is plural” reasoning is overthinking it.

      • SatanicNotMessianic
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        1 year ago

        “A number” is plural. You would not (I hope) say “A number of people has complained about my English.”

        • Bob@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          But the verb in question is what “none” is doing, not “a number”, so that’s irrelevant. By analogy: “The singers are performing today, but one of them has a sore throat.” Introducing “one” doesn’t change the number of “singers”; it’s in a new clause. Bringing something irrelevant into it is what I called overthinking in the last comment.