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powerhugs01/22/20253 repliesview on HN

Incorrectly top voted answers. "zeroes" is the plural form. The use of zero in "zero 3s" is not the number 0 but an adjective, synonym to "no" in that context.

The correct answer is the third one: https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/352496

I guess this is one of the reasons for the failing popularity of the Stack Exchange sites, simply voted best answers that are incorrect.

Similar to how you will find 30 incorrect upvoted seemingly correct-but-actually-incorrect answers to many reddit questions with the correct answer hidden deep down in the comments with no karma.

Similar how HN is turning out lately, too.

Related: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/are-llms-making-stackover...


Replies

hashmush01/22/2025

This is incredibly confusing. Of course the plural of zero (as a noun) is zero(e)s. But then you state that you understand that it's not about the noun, and still go on to say that the answers sharing your view are wrong..?

oneeyedpigeon01/22/2025

I think you're misunderstanding the question — possibly for comedic effect (?), it's hard to tell.

"zeroes" is the plural form of the noun "zero", yes. But the question is about using the form "zero" as an adjective and how that should affect the plurality of the noun it applies to: "zero book(s)", for example.

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kmm01/22/2025

The body of the question makes it abundantly clear what the OP is asking, which has nothing to do with the plural form of the noun "zero". You could suggest an improvement to the title, but answering "zeroes" and pretending it's the only correct answer is being deliberately obtuse.

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