English Word Question

[fcgamer | 4,723]

What do you call these? 

[fcgamer | 4,723]

It would be even better if you also post you studies / professional background.

[Tulpa | 3,492]

Singular - die

Plural - dice

Background - God Emperor of the Universe (professional writer and grammar nazi)

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Singular - Die

Plural - Dice

Background - Someone who took 5 years of Latin through middle/high school and can quote Julius Ceasar's famous quote, "The die has been cast" all these year later.  Also, brought up by parents who taught me the proper singular/plural terms for those items, had constant exposure to them as a very young child when my brother's weekly D&D sessions would come to our house, etc.

Edited January 6, 2021 by darkchylde28

[Sumez | 2,949]

Die/Dice, obviously.

Background: Picked up most of my English via pop culture

I will say "dice" in singular though if I'm communicating with someone that I'm assuming isn't familiar enough with English to understand what I'd mean with "die".

[Tabonga | 2,317]

The singular is definitely die historically - supposedly that usage is changing  (as English is so wont to do) to include dice. 

The plural is more complex.

If you have a bunch of different  dice but only one of each type they could be referred to as dies (depends on the context a lot).  (Think of the really obscure but legitimate use of fishes here.)

There is also a somewhat (well very) obscure verbal usage of dices.  Example - he/she plays craps as a hobby could also be stated as he/she dices as a hobby.

To confuse matters even more if one "throws the dice" the action can refer to 100 of the cubes (or whatever shape they happen to be) or just one - it refers to the act of casting rather than the number so cast.

Your picture could be described as four dice or with a modifier to say a group of four dies (thereby describing each as a distinct singular entity although a plural is used).

The nuances are kind of mind boggling.

 

 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Made a mistake and selected dice for #1

 singular is Die

 plural is Dice

 My background is just public schooling. I won’t use the “proper” word in a casual setting though. There are also very few situations that call for the proper word.

[Tabonga | 2,317]

It would be interesting to see what nomenclature a professional gambler or casino worker (or maybe even a statistician since they  can work with dice a lot) would use - assuming there is a general consensus among such a refined group.

[Sumez | 2,949]

Manuals for board games always refer to one die as a die.  

[Hammerfestus | 3,836]

Die/dice

Background: B.S. in German Translation (Applied Linguistics)

 

If there is historical precedent for dices (it’s certainly not a usage i can recall ever having heard actually used),I would say that this would be a situation where while dices and dice are both correct the usage dice is certainly the common and expected one.  I personally would not use dices as a noun because using it would raise so many questions and eyebrows.  

Dices is the verb of playing dice.  Dies could be used in a specialized context to refer to individual units within a groups of dice.

 Wait, why are we analyzing this?

Edit:  The gerund would be dicing?  Hmm.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Hammerfestus

[fcgamer | 4,723]

30 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

Wait, why are we analyzing this?

I'll let everyone know the back story to this in a day or so, after we get more votes. I don't want to sway anyone's usage vote beforehand.

 

[Jeevan | 8,910]

die/dice

maker of stickers 

[Tabonga | 2,317]

3 hours ago, Jeevan said:

maker of stickers 

Wonderful!

[Tabonga | 2,317]

4 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

 Wait, why are we analyzing this?

Why not?

Minutiae is often fascinating!

[Code Monkey | 2,006]

You posted a group of dice and asked what I would call one of those. I would call it dice. I would call multiple of those (multiple groups of dice) dices.

Background: Bachelor's degree in computer science with studies in language and I'm an author that has been published multiple times. Also I have Asperger's so I take very question exactly literally and I answer exactly literally.

[Boosted52405 | 178]

Wow, did not know a single dice is called a die.  Lol, always been dice for one or many in my brain.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

While Die is technically the correct singular term, fuck that its a dice.

 

Also its not often you only have one, usually there's at least two

[TDIRunner | 2,734]

One die or two dice.  But I completely accept anyone who uses dice singularly because I think it sounds better (I sometimes use it that way).  I would never correct someone who uses it that way, and I would be fine if that ever becomes the officially accepted term.  

Edit:  Bachelor's degree in Accounting, but also took a lot of engineering and math classes (but no minor).

Edited January 6, 2021 by TDIRunner

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

Singular: die

Plural: Dice

Profession/Background:  I took so many college classes that I got classified as a professional student.  I ended up with a BS in Civil Engineering so you can throw out any opinion I have on grammar or spelling.  I don't fit the stereo type of an engineer, I set the bar at the lowest possible level.  In my ACT testing, I got a score so low in Reading/English that they didn't even list what that score even means.  Pretty sure I would be mistaken as a person who English is a second/third language......it's not.