ESL Vocabulary and Idioms

Re: readed?

Tanit — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:12:10 GMT

Hi Pter,

Although I use Google (and some "cousins", like G. Scholar and G. Books) quite a lot, I didn't know it returned only the first 1,000 hits. That was a big surprise for me!
When I tried to access the 1,001st result of a search, I got their message

"Sorry, Google does not serve more than 1000 results for any query. (You asked for results starting from 1001.)"

Anyway, the link you provided in your other post makes it very clear that the number of hits is only a rough approximation

Wikipedia

Note also, that the number of hits reported by search engines is only an estimate...
At times, the hit count estimate can be significantly different (by one or more orders or magnitude) to the total count of results on the last page...
Caution must be used in judging the relative importance of websites yielding well over 1000 search results

Just for fun, google "grammer site:englishforums.com" ... 2,960 hits! Sooner or later, somebody will think it's correct just because they found so many occurrences in a grammar forum!

Re: readed?

Yoong Liat — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:32:58 GMT

read read read

spread spread spread

If you look for 'spreaded' in Google, you will be amazed at how many hits you can find.

Re: readed?

Pter — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:21:24 GMT

Tanit
As the others have pointed out, you can find anything on the internet. I googled "readed", as you did", and got 1,260,000 hits. However, I could have access to only 938 of them. Where did the other 1,259,062 disappear???
If you want to know why Google is not reliable when it comes to very large numbers, you might want to have a look at this post .

Hi Tanit,

Google only gives you the first 1,000 search results for ANY search keyword. Within the first 1,000 search results, Google eliminates those pages that are exactly the same and as a result, you most probably can only get to nine hundred something. You may click the link at the bottom to perform the search again by including those duplicated search results, but yet, you can still only get to the 1,000th entry. This has nothing to do with the "inaccuracy" of the number of Google hits.

There are also other reasons that the number of Google hits may not match with the actual number of entries you can see. For example, in some countries, some entries are filtered out by Google.

I am not saying that the number of Google hits shown is really accurate. Google has also admitted that it is a rough estimate. Nobody (including Google) knows how accurate this estimate is but I think the number is still a useful reference. Treat it as some sort of first-cut results for further research.

Regarding the word "readed", I searched it with different options in Google and the findings I got from Google really surprised me. The large number of hits really means something - the error is much much more common than I ever imagined. Of course, popularity does not equal to correctness! "Readed" is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Re: readed?

konrados — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:52:23 GMT

Tanit

I see you haven't been welcomed yet, so ... welcome to the forums!

Thank you!

And OK, I won't trust Google so much any more :)

Re: readed?

Tanit — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:49:25 GMT

Hi Konrados,

I see you haven't been welcomed yet, so ... welcome to the forums!

As the others have pointed out, you can find anything on the internet. I googled "readed", as you did", and got 1,260,000 hits. However, I could have access to only 938 of them. Where did the other 1,259,062 disappear???
If you want to know why Google is not reliable when it comes to very large numbers, you might want to have a look at this post .

Besides, while the vast majority of the occurrences were simply grammar mistakes (those where "read" should have been used), there were also some instances where "readed" was a typo (for instance, "Adobe Acrobat Readed" instead of "Adobe Acrobat Reader"), or lines from computer programs (for instance, "if end-begin < READBSIZE readed = end-begin"), where you can label some things to your heart's content.

Keep using Google, but don't trust it completely!

Re: readed?

konrados — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:13:38 GMT

OK, I get it now :) Thanks.

Re: readed?

tamguatlay — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:12:09 GMT

Hi Zerox

A very good reply.

Thanks.

Re: readed?

Zerox — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:05:06 GMT

Google also gives many hits with words like 'taked' and 'gived', and the horrendous 'its' vs. 'it's'. Irregular verbs and their inflection can be hard especially for foreigner, hence the 'popularity'.

Remember that just because something is on the Internet, doesn't necessarily mean that it's correct.

Re: readed?

tamguatlay — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:55:13 GMT

Hi Konrados

You seem to think that more hits means 'readed' is correct.

Re: readed?

konrados — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:51:57 GMT

OK thanks, so it's not correct?

Btw: "univresity" gives only about 12.000 results. "Readed" gives many more ...

Re: readed?

tamguatlay — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:46:28 GMT

Hi Konrados

Google will give me all sorts of things, including wrong words.

For example, I type 'univresity' and got the following, which is only a tiny fraction of what they provided.

,,'res','1',)" href="http://www.umt.edu/bussrvcs/files/Petty_Cash_Fund_Request.pdf">THE UNIVRESITY OF MONTANA

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - ,'','html','1','')" href="http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:I-36ZKLNqaUJ:www.umt.edu/bussrvcs/files/Petty_Cash_Fund_Request.pdf+univresity&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=sg">View as HTML
Business Services. (406) 243-6260 Fax (406) 243-4867. THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA. Petty Cash Fund Request. Department Name:. Chairperson Name: ...
www.umt.edu/bussrvcs/files/Petty_Cash_Fund_Request.pdf - Similar pages - Note this

,,'res','2','')" href="YouTube - Leo at the univresity
Leo at the univresity. Hello, you either have JavaScript ...
2 min 3 sec -

readed?

konrados — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:26:32 GMT
Hi.
My dictionary tells me that the forms of the "read" verb are "read,read,read" so : "I read a book yesterday", not "I readed a book yesterday". Then why Google shows over 1.000.000 results for the word "readed"?

ESL Vocabulary and Idioms

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,,'res','2','')" href="YouTube - Leo at the univresity

readed?