Text, A Text, Texts
I wrote “Multiple pages of recipes from the book, each page consisting of a photo and a text.” And, Manny pointed out to me that “a text” is wrong, that it should simply be “text”. But the plural form of the word “text” actually exists. If “texts” is legal, then “a text” must also exist. In what situation would one use “a text”?
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Now Roxy tells me that she uses "a text" in situations like "I found a reliable text on the Internet".
Dyske Nov-06-2002
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A text generally means an individual self-cohesive text. A bunch of individual self-cohesive texts would be 'texts'. A bunch of words on a page are 'text'. This little blurb is text, not a text.
yoinkmydanish Nov-11-2002
7 votes Permalink Report Abuse
Dariensan nailed it: some text (the words on one or several pages in a book), a text (the whole book), some texts (several whole books).
tnh Mar-17-2003
6 votes Permalink Report Abuse
So what they are saying is that it all depends on the context. Which isn't meant to trick you, this is a protext.
owl Mar-19-2003
2 votes Permalink Report Abuse
Hi, I know you mean well. But that little inscription atop your website that reads, "Your pain is our pleasure" could easily be misunderstood to mean it gives you pleasure to see people in pain.
Have you considered rewriting it to read something like, "it's our pleasure to ease your pain"?
Eugenson Dennis Aug-10-2016
10 votes Permalink Report Abuse
The is a text and the is a text.
user111343 Apr-11-2022
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