word usage - Singular of "dice"

After a discussion on the topic I found out that the oxford dictionary describes that

Historically, dice is the plural of die, but in modern standard English dice is both the singular and the plural: 'throw the dice' could mean a reference to either one or more than one dice.

and

dice. NOUN (plural same)

Source: oxforddictionaries.com

Which unsurprisingly surprised me. Now, I have long ago accepted that languages are living things and I am fine accepting change, however in this particular case I am not sure just how accepted this use is. The Oxford dictionary makes no mention of this use being slang which suggests it should be valid in 'proper' English as well and no reference is even made to die except as a 'see also' and the historical use.

So, does this mean uses like

We lost one dice whilst playing the game yesterday.

and

The 3D artist was developing a dice model, to be printed later.

are both valid?

Answer

I have never heard of "dice" being used as a singular instead of die. As a collective noun which could include one, sure:

Go on and roll the dice. How many dice do I roll? Just one.

But as a straight, unambiguous singular?

Roll one dice

or even worse

Roll a dice

sounds off to me. So I went to check published usage to see if I was being overly pedantic.

I ran a Google books search for the phrases "roll one die" and "roll one dice." I got:

• 5,540 results for "roll one die"


• 139 results for "roll one dice"

Browsing through the first page of results, a lot of the hits on "roll one dice" seem to be either self-published books or false positives for phrases like "roll one's dice" or "re-roll one dice roll," neither of which support Oxford's rule.

Running an Ngram...the Ngram viewer had no trouble with "roll one die" but could not find "roll one dice" at all.

Add to this the fact that "die" is commonly used in idioms like "The die is cast"--this doesn't guarantee that it's current and understood (see "short shrift") but it is another piece of evidence on the pile.

Based on this--and my experience--I would respectfully disagree that "roll one die" is archaic or obsolete in modern English. Even if "roll one dice" is gaining ground as an alternate form, "roll one die" is still the preferred singular, at least in formal writing.

grammatical number - What’s the correct plural possessive of “kids”?

I know that children’s books is correct, but for some reason I want to say kids books, even though I know that it’s a plural possessive noun ending in an s.

A quick search on the web turns up Barnes & Noble, who have a web page title that reads “Children's Books, Kids Books”.

Is the major bookseller wrong here? Or is there some exception I don’t remember?

More simply, is it kids books or kids’ books — and why?

Answer

Part of my answer to the question posted here was:

According to ‘The Cambridge Guide to English Usage’, the removal of
the apostrophe from 'plural nouns in phrases which express affiliation
. . . is widespread in the English-speaking world' and has the
imprimatur of the American Associated Press stylebook and the

Australian government Style Manual. As the Cambridge Guide says, ‘the
time spent worrying about whether it should really be driver’s licence
or drivers’ licence would be better used elsewhere.'

Nothing is lost by writing kids books rather than kids’ books. However, the Cambridge Guide does point out 'that there are special cases which seem anomalous without the apostrophe s', and one of them is childrens, 'because that is not a regular form of the word . . . Thus context is the final arbiter as to whether apostrophes are needed, as always.'

grammaticality - "Were that you who did that" vs. "was that you who did that"

Which of the following is correct?

• Were that you who did that?


• Was that you who did that?

Obviously one has to use were with you, but which one goes here in this case?

Answer

The subject of the main clause is that, singular. It follows that the verb has to be was, also singular.

capitalization - Which should be capitalized | Resume

I'm wondering if the words in this list which describe my university coursework should all be capitalized, or just the first word? If its relevant, these are NOT the actual name of the courses. But since I brought it up, what if they were the actual name of the course?

Ex.

Relevant Coursework: Machine Learning, Database Management Systems, Data Mining, Mergers, Financial Recapitalization, Leveraged Buyouts

Answer

Because the current list is not composed of official course names, they would not be capitalized. Generally, you would capitalize a proper noun (in this case, the official names of the classes), whereas here you are listing common nouns (the subjects of your coursework).

Correct version of current example:

Relevant coursework: machine learning, database management systems,
data mining, mergers, financial recapitalization, leveraged buyouts

You can read a bit more about proper and common nouns here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun#Common_and_proper_nouns

Though there are plenty of sites explaining them if you just use Google (<--- its capitalized because its proper noun).

pronouns - How to tell if "which" refers to subject or object of main clause?

I have not been able to find a satisfactory answer regarding rules about this issue. What I have heard are lots of opinions:

Here is a picture of my house, which I like very much.

Here is a picture of my house that I like very much.

In the second example, that clearly refers to the subject of the main clause, since we could omit it and it would still mean the same thing:

Here is a picture of my house I like very much.

In the first example, is there any rule about what which refers to? There is some ambiguity otherwise.

Answer

There's ambiguity when you try to analyze a sentence devoid of any communicative context. But since language is "quite often" used for communication, other things serve to help disambiguate; such as perceived speaker's intention, the topic of the discourse, the intended function of the sentence. If they don't, you can always ask your interlocutor whether he is referring to the picture or to the house.

meaning - "Den" and "living room"

I was wondering what the difference is between a den and a living room.

What does a den really mean?

For example, an apartment with two Bedrooms, two Baths and one Den:

Answer

It is usually meant to be used as a small office in your house. Sometimes it is set down a little lower than the rest of the rooms in the house on the same floor. Most that I have seen do not favor windows, but rather just walls where you can place bookshelves, and if there are windows, they are usually small and placed high for lighting rather than viewing outside.

Here is a picture of Mike Brady's den:

grammar - One sentence with two meanings! "The door was locked"

I'm learning English.
I think the sentence "The door was locked" has two meanings!. I'm very confused.

First of all, let's look at this example:

I broke the glass (Active)
The glass was broken (Passive)

========

Now, this:
(Change Active Voice to Passive Voice using above method):

A)
I locked the door (Active)
The door was locked (Passive)

Now, The past simple of the sentence "The door is locked" is "The door was locked" Again!

B)
The door is locked (Simple Present)
The door was locked (Past Simple)

========

Can you understand what I mean?
I think the sentence "The door was locked" has two meanings. Am I right?
Maybe I'm wrong. Why the English language is very confusing?