Email, Mail

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Anonymous

#160288 Sat, 19 Nov 05 09:24 AM

The word email is a countable noun; therefore, you could say an email or emails. Could you chop the letter e off of it, and simply say mail for email, if context-wise it's easy to understand you are referring to email --- a mail, mails, three mails?

Hiro/ Sendai, Japan

Anonymous

Vorpar

#160297 Sat, 19 Nov 05 09:55 AM

I think "messages" is more appropriate if you are counting them. For regular mail, you would say "3 letters" instead of "3 mails". So "3 messages" sounds more natural than "3 mails" or "3 e-mails".

Vorpar

Joined on Tue, Sep 20 2005

Santa Barbara, CA

Regular Member (829)

Danyoo

#160301 Sat, 19 Nov 05 10:29 AM

Or how about pieces of mail, as in "I received 3 pieces of mail from my mother."

As far as email, I have seen it used as a countable and non-countable noun.
-I get lots of email everyday.
-I have to send out 3 more emails before I go home today.

Danyoo

Joined on Fri, Nov 11 2005

Chicago, USA

Regular Member (558)

To err is human, to forgive divine. 잘못을 저지르는 것은 인간이지만 용서할수있는 것은 하늘과 같은것.

My2sense

#160307 Sat, 19 Nov 05 11:27 AM

Anonymous wrote:

The word email is a countable noun; therefore, you could say an email or emails. Could you chop the letter e off of it, and simply say mail for email, if context-wise it's easy to understand you are referring to email --- a mail, mails, three mails?

Hiro/ Sendai, Japan

Hiro,

Unfortunately this is sometimes done i.e. mail for e-mail. Yet, it doesn't seem to sound 'right' when you say mails. *I've got 3 mails. I think it is better to say - I've got 3 e-mails.

My2sense

Joined on Sun, Nov 13 2005

europe

Full Member (154)

Nouns, Countable nouns

MrPedantic

#160328 Sat, 19 Nov 05 01:02 PM

Some people do seem to say "a mail" for "an email" (e.g. "I sent you a mail this morning – did you get it?").

I can't quite put my finger on why it's irritating; but it is...

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,138)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

X11

#160366 Sat, 19 Nov 05 03:29 PM

In my opinion the most correct is e-mail. It seems to me that mails are totally inappropriate to use. When it comes to messages, I believe it is a matter of opinion.

Personally, I have encountered e-mails several times as answers to e-mails I have sent to different persons and firms. For instance, Ladbrokes, wrote me an answer to two e-mails I had sent it, and that 'mail' (for some reason I think it sounds right in this situation) started like this;

In response to the two e-mails you have sent us.....................

X11

Joined on Tue, Nov 1 2005

Aarhus, Denmark

Full Member (120)

Teahupoo - A Spectacle Beyond Imagination

X11

#160368 Sat, 19 Nov 05 03:31 PM

Oh the two words that are missing are mails and messages respectively Smile [:)]

X11

pieanne

#160380 Sat, 19 Nov 05 04:33 PM

In France, we say both e-mail/s (I often spell it Email, but this may be just me...) and mail/s, but it's easy because the word "mail" doesn't belong to our language, so it's no big deal to use it in the plural. The purists call them "courriels" - courriers él(ectroniques), which I personally never use, I don't like those "frenchizations" of original words. But then I'm an English fan... Yet I can imagine the linguistic throes the English speaking people can be in when being faced with the dilemma "Shall I add an -s to 'mail'? " Aarrgghh...