Zompist Bboard Again

When you say "roll the dice" are you ever referring to a single cube? I use "dice" in the singular, never "die".

Space60 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:25 am When you say "roll the dice" are you ever referring to a single cube? I use "dice" in the singular, never "die".

Just like lice, as it was mentioned in another thread, dice practically functions as a plurale tantum.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:42 am

Space60 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:25 am When you say "roll the dice" are you ever referring to a single cube? I use "dice" in the singular, never "die".

Just like lice, as it was mentioned in another thread, dice practically functions as a plurale tantum.

Well, yes. Dice commonly come in pairs. So they are often referred to in the plural. This leads to "roll the dice" being used even if only referring to a single cube rather than saying "roll the die".

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:42 am Just like lice, as it was mentioned in another thread, dice practically functions as a plurale tantum.

For me speaking naturally, it functions as a singular like sheep or deer.

Richard W wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 1:55 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:42 am Just like lice, as it was mentioned in another thread, dice practically functions as a plurale tantum.

For me speaking naturally, it functions as a singular like sheep or deer.

The key word is "practically", just simply because one speaks of singular die so infrequently. Saying, e.g., ?"the dice has red dots" sounds a bit odd, but also not unacceptable either. At the same time, when one is specifically speaking of a single dice, *"the dice have red dots" is not acceptable at all.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 2:28 pm

Richard W wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 1:55 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:42 am Just like lice, as it was mentioned in another thread, dice practically functions as a plurale tantum.

For me speaking naturally, it functions as a singular like sheep or deer.

The key word is "practically", just simply because one speaks of singular die so infrequently. Saying, e.g., ?"the dice has red dots" sounds a bit odd, but also not unacceptable either. At the same time, when one is specifically speaking of a single dice, *"the dice have red dots" is not acceptable at all.

"The die has red dots" is frequently incomprehensible.

I feel like D&D players would do better at this, because you frequently have to roll (or talk about) a single die.

Also, for consistency, I think we should call it a douse.

zompist wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 2:51 pm Also, for consistency, I think we should call it a douse.

English needs more umlaut plurals.

zompist wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 2:51 pmI feel like D&D players would do better at this, because you frequently have to roll (or talk about) a single die.

Speaking as someone who began playing D&D at age 13, I concur. I'm pretty sure the Player's Handbook was the first place where I saw "die" used as the singular of "dice" and I've used it consistently with that meaning ever since.

If I found a cube with dots on it somewhere, I would naturally refer to it as a dice, not a die.

I remember one time in middle school when I heard the cube referred to as a die and it sounded strange to me.

I have occasionally heard people refer to multiple dice as "dices".

mostly tabletop rpg people write about rolling 1d6 instead of 'a die/dice' (even in speech it's often "roll one dee six" or whatever). still, roll one die for me die means more the sort of hard metal things used in manufacturing, even though i know consciously dice is supposed to be plural.

how about dice / deece ?

I went through a phase of calling a single one a "die" out of prescriptivism, but "dice" is the only one that's ever sounded natural to me.

Space60 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:25 am When you say "roll the dice" are you ever referring to a single cube? I use "dice" in the singular, never "die".

The usual English translation of what Julius Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon, is
“The die is cast”.

….

ratammer wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2024 12:56 am I went through a phase of calling a single one a "die" out of prescriptivism, but "dice" is the only one that's ever sounded natural to me.

I guess prescriptivism comes naturally to me!

To me "a dice" sounds wrong; one would have to say "a single dice". However, "the dice" when speaking of a single dice sounds okay to me.

TomHChappell wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 8:36 am The usual English translation of what Julius Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon, is “The die is cast”.

This is a matter of philological dispute. Caesar was quoting Menander at the time; Plutarch (writing in Greek) accordingly provides the quotation ἀνερρίφθω κύβος ("let the die be cast") and notes explicitly that Caesar said it in Greek. Suetonius, on the other hand, writes (in Latin) that Caesar said alea iacta est ("the die is cast") which is one letter off from an accurate translation of the Greek (alea iacta esto). The supposition therefore is that either Suetonius was in error or someone helpfully "corrected" the unfamiliar future imperative form esto in transmitting his words to us.

I kept forgetting to come back to this thread and mention it, but I was listening to episode 341 of the Elis James and John Robins podcast (sometimes when I have no new podcast episodes to listen to I go back to ones from before I started listening), and they played a game using dice, and they repeatedly used "die" as if it was a plural, too many times to be a slip of the tongue, and in the same conversation as using "dice" as both singular and plural. I can only think that there is an in-joke I'm missing here.