Adding -s

[Casiopea]

Personally, I prefer sentence 1. I'm not sure if 2. is correct or not.

persons refers to the individuals within the group--it expresses that the group is made up of individuals, whereas people refers to the group as a whole--it expresses a collective.

[jack]

Thanks.

[Casiopea]

You're welcome.

[jack]

What do these mean?

1. We have a lot of computer mice.
2. We have a lot of computer mouses.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by jack

What do these mean?

1. We have a lot of computer mice.
2. We have a lot of computer mouses.

Both are fine, but 2. is technically more correct.

There are two words 'mouse'. One refers to a rodent, the other, computer hardware. The latter is a new word, so adding -es is fine.

We have one computer mouse.
We have two computer mouses.

'mice' is the plural of the noun 'mouse', meaning rodent. Adopting 'mice' to refer to computer hardware is fine because it follows the rules of the English language, not to mention ushers in a word that sounds kind of cool.

[jack]

not to mention ushers in a word that sounds kind of cool.

Thanks. What do you mean by 'ushers'?

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by jack

Thanks. What do you mean by 'ushers'?

An usher is a person who works at a theatre and whose job it is to show people to their seats. S/he ushers them (brings them) into the theatre.

[jack]

Thanks.

1. You can talk to our technicians if you have any problems. (Does this mean you can talk to any one of our technicians or does it mean you can talk to many teachnicians at a time? How do you know what it means?)
2. You can talk to our technician if you have any problems. (Does this mean you can talk to one technician if you have any problems? Or Does it mean you can talk to one technician at a time?)

[Casiopea]

1. You can talk to our technicians.
=> Plural; We have many technicians, and you can talk to whomever you want, be that just one or two or more.

2. You can talk to our technician.
=> Singular; We have only one technician.

[jack]

Thanks.
1. You can talk to our technicians. (How come this doesn't mean you can talk to many technicians at a time? How do you know if it doesn't mean that?)