One unexpected kindness

[Zylendia]

One of the loading page quotes is grammatically incorrect. "One unexpected kindness" doesn't make any sense. Maybe change it to "One unexpected act of kindness"
I tried getting a screenshot of the exact quote, but I couldn't be bothered to spend more than 5 minutes on this. It says something like "One unexpected kindness can change everything"

 

[Justis]

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/kindness

It is grammatically correct.

Saying “One unexpected act of kindness” would also be correct, but it would be unnecessarily redundant phrasing, which makes a big difference on our brief splash loading pages.

 

[Dies]

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/kindness

It is grammatically correct.

Saying “One unexpected act of kindness” would also be correct, but it would be unnecessarily redundant phrasing, which makes a big difference on our brief splash loading pages.

Thumbs Up!

 

[Zylendia]

Honestly, it sounds really stupid. But sure- I'm not really passionate about it. It just bothered me.

 

[Justis]

nono thats not how it works. the example above is "it is a kindness" which is really old english and doesn't sound normal at all

and the saying is generally One unexpected act of kindness can change someones world. One expected kindness just makes it look fucking stupid

In the dictionary definition, “a” is kindness’s determiner, whereas in the splash page, “one” is its determiner.
Both are grammatically correct. You’ve just been overly exposed to “act of kindness” by anti-bullying propaganda to the point where it sounds wrong not to say “act of”.

It’s not “old english”.
If you read enough sources, you’ll realize just how often it's referred to without the redundant use of “act of”.
You tell someone to keep the change, they tell you “Thank you for your kindness”, not “Thank you for your act of kindness”.
When someone wants to pay you back for a favor, they’d say “I want to repay your kindness” not “I want to repay your act of kindness”.
Both are acceptable, one is shorter and less redundant.

Again, I’m fairly certain the only reason it sounds out of place to be phrased that way is due to https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/ and their educational partnerships, spreading their phrase amongst k-12 students around the world since the start of the 21st century.
Of course, it is catchier in their message, especially since their brief phrasing’s lack of a determiner would otherwise make it unclear whether or not they’re referring to kindness as a quality or kindness as an act.

 

[Zacey]

Theres a difference between "Thank you for your kindness" and "One expected kindness"

Stop trying. You lost.

 

[Zacey]

who the fuck are you? get off the thread retard

Imagine thinking you're relevant on a minecraft market place.

 

[Zacey]

imagine saying I lost in a open ended argument? yikes ego getting bigger by the second my man- so unless you have something proper to give into the argument besides just saying "I lost" you can get off the thread buddy

Alright then; Just because you're brought up with the saying "act of kindness" does not mean it is invalid to say "One unexpected kindness". I know you're just gonna blow this off because you're like that. As Justis has already provided the evidence needed, it's quite clear you're 'wrong'. If I were to continue arguing it would just be repetitive.

Obviously I think it should be changed, as today it's mostly said, "Act of kindness". But it doesn't mean it is incorrect.

 

[Blood]

Why argue over whether it's grammatically correct or not? I think the splash loading page should sound good as well as being correct. Saying "an act of kindness" in that context sounds way better and is more commonly said than "a kindness". I thought the thread title sounded weird before even clicking on it.

If you read enough sources, you’ll realize just how often it's referred to without the redundant use of “act of”.
You tell someone to keep the change, they tell you “Thank you for your kindness”, not “Thank you for your act of kindness”.
When someone wants to pay you back for a favor, they’d say “I want to repay your kindness” not “I want to repay your act of kindness”.
Both are acceptable, one is shorter and less redundant.

When you say "thank you for your kindness," I think of "kindness" in that context as a personal quality rather than an action whereas "One unexpected kindness" is an action when you include the "one". It just sounds weird even if it's correct. Language is constantly evolving as words are increasingly used in a different way than before. I think these days, most use "act of kindness" in the context of an act, so we should use that. If you respond to this, keep in mind that I do not care about the fact that the current wording is correct.

 

[Justis]

Why argue over whether it's grammatically correct or not? I think the splash loading page should sound good as well as being correct. Saying "an act of kindness" in that context sounds way better and is more commonly said than "a kindness". I thought the thread title sounded weird before even clicking on it.

When you say "thank you for your kindness," I think of "kindness" in that context as a personal quality rather than an action whereas "One unexpected kindness" is an action when you include the "one". It just sounds weird even if it's correct. Language is constantly evolving as words are increasingly used in a different way than before. I think these days, most use "act of kindness" in the context of an act, so we should use that. If you respond to this, keep in mind that I do not care about the fact that the current wording is correct.

My responses have been to the accusations that the message is grammatically incorrect. Since I wrote it and happen to be somewhat passionate about the English language, I feel I should defend my choice of phrasing.

I’m not against changing it or even removing the message entirely, especially if the consensus is that it bothers people.
What I am against is changing it specifically due to a misconception about the phrase’s grammatical correctness. Misinformation shouldn’t be indulged. If, after realizing that it’s not incorrect, everyone still wants it changed, that’s totally fine with me.

It’s just one of over 100 one-liners; and we can write more.

 

[User]

yeah okay if you want to use your old english instead of normal english feel free, but there's also a ton of misspelled loading screens last time i checked

 

[Aelin]

I don’t know why this bothers so many people. The splash reads perfectly normal to me, and this thread feels a bit like an over-analyzation. Saying it sounds stupid is an extremely emotional response to such a mundane line. It’s grammatically correct, and not only on a technical level... it makes sense, and sounds better than the alternative.

 

[Mick]

Since the time that this bug report was opened we have basically removed the cloudflare splash page from the site, making this no longer relevant.

I'll move this to the bug report archives, thank you.