On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 08:31:48AM -0600, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote > On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Marco Herrn wrote: > > > On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 02:53:08PM +0200, Peter Palfrader wrote: > > > > In german, "darf nicht" means: "is not allowed to" whereas > > > > in english, "may not" is more like "is allowed to not ..." > > > > conversely, the english "must not" is stronger than the german "muss > > > > nicht". > > > > > > Are you sure you're not confusing 'need not' and 'may not'? > > > In my opinion 'may not' is the same as 'must not'. (as in 'darf nicht') > > > > > > need not - is allowed to not - muss nicht > > Nifty, a discussion of English grammar and usage - finally, > something I feel totally competent in! :) > > This should probably be " - is allowed not to" rather than > " - is allowed to not" which is an awkward construction in > English. > > > > may not, must not - is not allowed to - darf nicht > > > > I think Peter is right. > > Maybe a native english speaker can tell us what is correct. > > In this context, "must" should probably be > used because "must" is typically used in law and policy. > If I recall correctly, "must" is the term typically used in > RFCs to indicate something a program must do or must not do. > In spoken English they're interchanged pretty freely, but > in this case "must" is more correct. > > "May not do x" doesn't mean "is allowed to not do x" > it means that permission is not given to do x. Since we're > talking about policy an guidelines, though, "must" is more > clear. > > Hope this helps - English is probably the most confusing > language to learn as a non-native speaker. The only > inviolable rule in the English language is that there > are no inviolable rules...
For clarity, and in view of the uncertainty that appears to exist in some minds, it should probably be changed to 'must not'; the use of 'may' is ambiguous and must be resolved by context, so using it here *may not* convey the intended meaning. John Pearson. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mdt.net.au/~john Debian Linux admin & support:technical services