Lego Microscope

Re:Lego Microscope by jerf on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:33AM (#26915768)

My main point here is that you probably don't run around saying LEGO, in all caps, not singular vs plural.

I understand why the LEGO corporation does it, but it's their problem, not ours, and we don't really need unpaid lego consultants running around lecturing people about the "correct" way to refer to them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by 1024core on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:59PM (#26916721)

> My main point here is that you probably don't run around saying LEGO, in all caps, not singular vs plural.

WHAT? DOESN'T EVERYBODY SHOUT WHEN THEY SAY LEGO??

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by em-bee on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:10PM (#26916853)

we do when we step on them

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by frosted-flakes on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:58AM (#26916073)

I think it's fairly obvious why they want people to refer to them as a brand—they don't want to lose their trademark. If LEGO becomes so generic as to lose its association with the company that created it, then they lose out to all of the copycat companies. Velcro has done the same ("hook and loop, one side's a hook, the other's a loop"...).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by eigenket on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:48AM (#26915946)

Yeah I was just surprised by the assertion that

>"Legos" is clearly in common usage

Given that I don't ever hear people using it.

Personally I get faintly annoyed by people saying "legos" the same as I would by people saying "sheeps" instead of sheep when referring to multiple, although I don't think I've ever corrected anyone over it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by munificent on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:43PM (#26916551)

> Given that I don't ever hear people using it.

I certainly do. The people around you are not a uniform sample of all communities on Earth.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by eigenket on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:55PM (#26916692)

That was exactly my point. The guy was saying people shouldn't correct an "incorrect" thing which is in common usage, but I was trying to emphasise that it isn't common usage everywhere.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by hprotagonist on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:25PM (#26916338)

i remember being galled by it in the late 80s, so this debate, at least, has been going on for some time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by mitchdoogle on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:54AM (#26916034)

Strange because as an American I've almost always heard to them referred as Legos. As a kid, my friends and I said, "let's play with Legos". My parents would say " get these legos off the floor". Seems odd to me to think of these phrases without the "s" on lego

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by eigenket on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:10PM (#26916212)

I have a pet theory - in north america you have a popular snack called an eggo (pluralised to eggos) thats basically a waffle.

I think americans started calling lego legos because they were already calling eggos eggos. In the uk and europe generally we don't have eggos, so we don't have legos.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by greenwich26 on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:10PM (#26916851)

More likely, the Americans lengthen the e in the first syllable into almost a diphthong, like /eɪ/, and shorten the "o" in the second syllable into a schwa kind of sound that can comfortably be followed by /z/. Meanwhile, in British and many European accents, the first syllable is short and strongly stressed /ɛ/, and the o is /oʊ/, and you can't add an s without contorting your mouth in some horrible way. Which is why British people are so disgusted by "Legos". Try saying it with an American accent.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by unbalancedevh on Friday April 23, 2021 @02:46PM (#26917805)

As an American who grew up playing with and saying "legos," I've never heard anyone pronounce it the way you're suggesting.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by eigenket on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:32PM (#26917093)

Yeah thats probably a more reasonable explanation than my theory. On the other hand its pretty common to say silos, speedos (both for swimwear and slang for a speedometer) and flamingos in British english and they have very similar endings.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by j4yav on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:44PM (#26916571)

Please, the Eggo corporation would prefer you refer to them as one EGGO or multiple EGGO waffles (tm)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by eigenket on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:03PM (#26916770)

Interestingly the company initially wanted people to call them "Froffles", but people apparently called them "eggos" due to the fact that they taste eggy. Then the company changed the name to "eggo" to reflect that.

I checked the wiki page and thought the contrast between the two approaches is interesting.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by MarkLowenstein on Friday April 23, 2021 @07:16PM (#26920373)

I love pet theories so I hate to disagree. I've personally said the word "Legos" about 1M times in my life and it's mostly because Legos always come in groups, groups with a lot of items. You have to have a plural word to refer to them.

Also (child of the 70s) I am certain that I was calling mine Legos before I even knew about Eggo waffles. Third - boy I'm really piling on, sorry - I don't think I've ever referred to multiple Eggo waffles as "Eggos", probably because there's already "waffles" for that.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by em-bee on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:16PM (#26916263)

the catchphrase from the advertisement is "leggo my eggo", where leggo means "let go" which can't have an s appended. i have never had them so i am not sure, but i don't think they are that popular, and i haven't seem them referred to in plural

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by gbear605 on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:33PM (#26916439)

As a kid, I heard people say the phrase “legos my eggos”, (since the “leggo” had lost al of its association with “let go”).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by jjav on Friday April 23, 2021 @08:17PM (#26920837)

Yes, it's always "legos" when referring to the pieces (unless singular one piece), in my world.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lego Microscope by tragomaskhalos on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:03PM (#26918613)

It seems to be a fairly clear-cut geographical divide - Americans always pluralise, Britons never do. Without knowing but based on other lexical splits, I'd expect the majority of the rest of the Anglophone world to follow British usage, with Canada going either one way or the other. Usually Americans can cite 17c usage as a precedent - not in this case !

[ Parent | on HN ]