In Sea of Thieves there is the option to "send an invite" and view "Invites", and variations thereof repeated throughout the menus. These are incorrect and should be "Send an invitation" and "Invitations" respectively. "Invite a friend" is used correctly in the game because 'invite' is a verb. This is a common mistake but the lack of distinction between noun and verb where one exists is concerning. I would not expect to see the same error made with "notify" and "notification". I hope this can be corrected in a future update and should not take much effort to do so.
Invite is a verb, invitation is a noun
@sproganoff from my limited googling. the word Invite has been used as a noun for nearly 400 years. Also both the cambridge dictionary and the merriam-webster list invite as a noun.
@sproganoff invite and invitation are both commonly accepted uses of the word in the context you’re referring to in English. Invite is also both a noun and a verb.
I think just because someone made the same mistake 400 years ago doesn't make it correct today. Everyone makes mistakes and that's fine but I don't think it could be said to have been accepted as correct.
@captain-coel said in Invite is a verb, invitation is a noun:
@sproganoff from my limited googling. the word Invite has been used as a noun for nearly 400 years. Also both the cambridge dictionary and the merriam-webster list invite as a noun.
Ah, but is that long enough to be a noun during the Golden Age of Piracy ?
😁
Haha that's a good point. You know I probably wouldn't mind it used in dialogue in-character in the game but it's not right in the menu.
Something can be both a verb and a noun based on context. And even if in this case it some how wasnt, it would have then been getting used in a form of slang which is a natural form of language evolution. Take bilging for example, technically it means to put a hole in the ship, but in this game it means draining the ship because its just easier to say.
Basically to sum up, even if you were right, there is no reason to take language so seriously because it always changes. Slang is a good thing, even if grade school teachers tried to teach otherwise.
It's listed in Cambridge as "informal" which I take to mean something that is in common usage but not strictly correct, particularly in this context. I don't think it should be used in game menus.
Informal does NOT mean incorrect.
Yeah, sure, hence my point above about it being used in-character vs in a menu. A dictionary is there both to explain how a language is commonly used while also laying down rules for its use. These two functions can sometimes be at odds with each other. It would be correct to say that people use invite as a noun while not being formally correct for them to do so.
People make mistakes with their language, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. I know I do too but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve or be correct where we can.
@sproganoff lemme ask, is English your first language? Genuinely curious.
Language evolves and changes, just because it’s in the dictionary as one thing, it doesn’t make it incorrect to be used in a common setting. Yes, someone may have made a mistake 400 years ago, but that’s a big if.
I also can’t believe I’m having to seriously reply to a debate over the use of the word invite. Of all the things…
@tesiccl
Yes, English is my first language and I completely agree that slang and evolving usage enriches a language and inspires creative thinking. I don't think we should lose sight entirely of what is formally correct and what isn't though, and in the case of invite/invitation we are simply losing a distinction and reducing the vocabulary. Rather than enriching the language we are diminishing it and I think it's a shame to lose words like this.
@sproganoff said in Invite is a verb, invitation is a noun:
Yeah, sure, hence my point above about it being used in-character vs in a menu. A dictionary is there both to explain how a language is commonly used while also laying down rules for its use. These two functions can sometimes be at odds with each other. It would be correct to say that people use invite as a noun while not being formally correct for them to do so.
People make mistakes with their language, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. I know I do too but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve or be correct where we can.
Menu usage does not equate to formality. Formal vs informal is a matter of context. The context that the word is being used is entirely fine as an informal usage.
As stated, you dont need to take language so seriously. It makes no difference in any way if they use "invites" or "invitations", other than one just takes longer to spell. Everyone understands what it means either way, and no one has had issue with it before now.
@sproganoff from our friends over at Merriam-Webster.
The process whereby a word changes its part of speech is called functional shift, and there are tens of thousands of words which have done this. Some of them just bother people more than others, and invite (along with gift and friend, which have changed in the opposite direction) is one that attracts considerable opprobrium.
Using Invite as a noun is in fact correct and has been an acceptal form of the word for hundreds of years. Like it was used as a noun before the USA was even a country, think about that. You want to change generations of usage of a word.
@sproganoff Do you use "decimate" properly?
Words change and always will.
My favorite example of this is "nimrod" - a biblical mighty hunter originally, flipped to a foolish person by a bugs bunny cartoon in the 40s (iirc)
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