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Why do anime fans say Serie instead of Series?


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OnePieceFANatic



Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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Location: The Grand Line!
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 6:09 am Reply with quote
As far as i know, there is no such word as serie, and it isn't in the dictionary. A single series is still called a series, because it is formed up of a series of episodes/volumes (if it's a book). But I notice on most anime forums they use the word serie, is there a reason for this?
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one3rd



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:34 am Reply with quote
Because they can't spell properly or because of typographical errors. Either that or it's an inside joke on whatever forum you're talking about.
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goins007



Joined: 30 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:37 am Reply with quote
I can't say that I've ever seen "serie". I'm also guessing that it's some sort of typo since it means "series" in italian.
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biliano



Joined: 24 Jan 2005
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:43 am Reply with quote
I also noticed that some people use the term animes in describing more than one anime series, e.g. "What animes would you suggest for a newbie". As far as I know, the plural of anime is anime, am I correct?
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abunai
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 8:27 am Reply with quote
It's a grammatical error, either caused by lack of skill with English (a common failing today), or by linguistic contamination from another language (not surprising, with so many non-native English speakers on this forum).

In English, series is both the singular and the plural, but someone unfamiliar with the word might easily mistake the -s for a plural, and falsely believe that the singular was serie.

In some other languages, there exist both a singular and a plural form. For instance:

Danish -- serie and serier (also, Swedish and Norwegian)
German -- Serie and Serien
French -- série and séries (and similarly in other Romance languages)

For non-native English speakers, therefore, it may be difficult to remember that the English form of the word does not distinguish between singular and plural.

However, the grammatically correct English is always the same, no matter what reason or excuse is given for the mistake. There is no such word in English as serie, and anyone who thinks there is, is mistaken. Period.

Also, yes, the plural of anime is anime.

- abunai
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joel_s95387



Joined: 29 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 9:29 am Reply with quote
What you have to know is that it's an easy word to misspell/overlook. I mean whoever spelled that obviously missed the "s". You can blame instant messengers and chat rooms for that, or someone’s keyboard. I know my laptop keys are not as sensitive as my desktop so I almost always end up with misspellings because I miss a letter in a word.

Oh and abunai, do you know the Spanish way(s) of saying series? I think it's just spelled "serie".
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undeadben



Joined: 06 May 2006
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 10:02 am Reply with quote
I'm not abunai, but I am Mexican so I know a bit of Spanish. Wink You are correct, in Spanish it is just "serie" for singular and "series" in the plural form.

I had one question myself for any takers. Is it not more appropriate to use the term anime as in a style, followed by the type? As in, "I watched an anime movie" or, "I did not enjoy the anime series." This opposed to saying something like, "I watched an anime last night and it rocked!"

Although I think I'm just taking this a step too far. I usually refer to it in any type as just anime, I was only wondering since this topic brought it to mind.
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OnePieceFANatic



Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 10:16 am Reply with quote
No I doubt it's a typo. I see it way too much. And on this forum too, I actually started this topic because I saw it here. I guess it's a common grammatical error. I actually thought there was a reason for saying it that way, cus I see it often. Well, glad that's cleared up Very Happy
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opaquescum



Joined: 22 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 11:33 am Reply with quote
There is also the phenomena of leet. When someone converses in leet they tend to feal free with gramatical rules. They will often use languages from other countries, and drop them right in the middle of english text. Sometimes they will truncate the word as a mere attempt at slang. It is hard to judge the context without reading a post. Though in this case I am betting someone just made a minor grammatical error. In all fairness english has alot of messed up rules. So the person makeing the mistake actually did a logical thing, and did not know that series is one of many funky words out there.

Touching on what undeadben asked. From my experience atleast ninety percent of anime on these boards is a discussion about a anime series. Infact alot of posters seem oblivious to the existence of anime movies. From what I have seen here it is just assumed it is a series. Unless you specifically say it is a movie. Which thankfully most posters point out when they are discussing a movie.

Compound that with many movies being derived from a manga, and the situation gets more complex. You can see this in many posts where someone is talking about a movie, and suddenly manga is brought into the discussion. Some posters do not differentiate between a manga, a series it might generate, and any movie it might generate. This can make stand alone discussions difficult.

I am not sure if I hate, or like how many people go about being nonspecific in that respect. On one hand it does lead to confusion, and can be a bit tiresome. Such as someone just saying I watched Ninja Scroll last night. Yeah which one the movie or the series? On the other hand when people are in the know on subject matter they tend to avoid rehashing, and in a sense it usually gets rid of alot of superfluous subject matter, and lets them get straight to the point. Without getting into the subjects of origens and so forth.

Anyway thats my take on the whole nondescript approach.
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abunai
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 12:16 pm Reply with quote
joel_s95387 wrote:
Oh and abunai, do you know the Spanish way(s) of saying series? I think it's just spelled "serie".


undeadben wrote:
I'm not abunai, but I am Mexican so I know a bit of Spanish. Wink You are correct, in Spanish it is just "serie" for singular and "series" in the plural form.


Ahem... allow me to quote myself:

abunai wrote:
French -- série and séries (and similarly in other Romance languages)


Moving right along...

joel_s95387 wrote:
I had one question myself for any takers. Is it not more appropriate to use the term anime as in a style, followed by the type? As in, "I watched an anime movie" or, "I did not enjoy the anime series." This opposed to saying something like, "I watched an anime last night and it rocked!"

I'd say both (adjective form, or noun form) are correct, and the appropriate usage is dependent upon context.

opaquescum wrote:
There is also the phenomena of leet.

Ehh... "phenomena" is plural, "phenomenon" is the singular form.

- abunai
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undeadben



Joined: 06 May 2006
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 12:49 pm Reply with quote
abunai wrote:
Ahem... allow me to quote myself:

abunai wrote:
French -- série and séries (and similarly in other Romance languages)


My apologies, I did not intend to ignore your previous answer, I was merely showing that in Spanish the accent is not used, at least not when written. joel_s95387 was asking about the correct Spanish spelling. As you said they are used "similarly" in the Romance languages as in the French "série" and "séries." Similar, however not identical.

And I thank you and opaquescum for answering my own question.
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hentai4me



Joined: 25 Oct 2005
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Hooray for English, we have rules...and just as many exceptions to them.

No wonder the French described English as 'Illogical and the speech of drudges'
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 2:41 pm Reply with quote
As has been mentioned, "serie" is an error often made by non-native speakers of English, but I've seen native English speakers type it almost as much. With the decline or something of grammar teaching, even native speakers seem to have issues with inflected forms in general, and say things like "don't worrie" or "he wanted me to marrie hime" or "she had a babie." To say nothing of extraneous apostrophes...I'd rather see "serie" than "serie's" or "series' " Anime hyper Anime dazed And while we're on the subject, the technical rule for most words borrowed from Japanese is that they should be treated like "deer" or "fish" when made plural, so one anime > two anime, one samurai > two samurai, one manga > two manga ; of course, this is because Japanese words don't have plural forms (and if they do get pluralized, it's not with ~s or ~es).
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hentai4me



Joined: 25 Oct 2005
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Location: England. Robin is so Cute!
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 3:39 pm Reply with quote
Zalis116 wrote:
To say nothing of extraneous apostrophes...I'd rather see "serie" than "serie's" or "series' "


But series' would imply the plural form of ownership of a series, or that a group of series owns something(abstract but not technically wrong as series in this case is a noun rather than a verb).

Its been so long since I studied English properly, But I do love languages nuances. Plus I can annoy the Chinese trainee in the office, he loves to baffle us with Chinese language rules and permutations and I can do the same with English.

(bear with me on this, I've not really had much time to study it properly yet, basic answers please!)

Hej, ja héter David och kómmer från Éngland vad héter du? Hur går det?
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opaquescum



Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Posts: 235
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 6:21 pm Reply with quote
Actually abunai I intended to use the word phenomena. I intended the statement to be undefined. For the simple reason that the entire leet issue is not a solid or a defined one. Not saying your right, or wrong when it comes to your view on leet. Personally I have decided until a college has taken the time to do a extensive study of leet, and followed it up with open discourse. Then far be it from me to decide whether it is one ten or twenty differing forms of communications. Communications that in the end may be so radical that they do not merit being grouped together. You might gather at this point when I chose the term I actually put a good deal of thought as to what I would convey. Needless to say this is not a message about defineing leet. Doing so would be a long and cumbersome discussion, and doing so in this thread would be hijacking. From my point of view Leet can never be a phenomenon.

On a side note abunai I think you need to reflect on the derogatory nature of your posting. Whether you think you found a error or not does not require a comment on your part. Unless you are looking to agitate posters. In plain english you really ticked me off with your attempt at a jab. Now if you want to say you dislike a poster, or do not want them to post here anymore just come right out, and say so.
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