When a Point is not a Point
In English there are at least three different
ways to say PUNTO. The very Spanish PUNTO
is PERIOD when it is one of the several punctuation marks used when writing
(also called FULL STOP when it is placed at the end of a paragraph). That’s one.
If it is used as a decimal separator then PUNTO
is POINT as in “40.5” for example, which is read “forty point five” (notice
that in the same situation Spanish speakers use commas not points). That’s two.
Then if it is used in an electronic address we
don’t say PERIOD or POINT but DOT so for instance www.hotmail.com is read “www dot hotmail dot
com”. And that’s three.
In all three cases we use the word POINT in
Spanish and so it begs the question: Does this indicate that Spanish is
sometimes more practical than English or is it another proof that English is
richer than Spanish?
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