Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term
Brazil
specializes in research articles
Native in: English 
, Portuguese
Works in: Portuguese to English, English to Portuguese, English
none
The document basically talks about how big banks have low customer loyalty. It is at:
http://tinyurl.com/27quoze
Some banks embarked on this journey years ago and are now showing the way forward and reaping the rewards. Several regional banks, community banks and credit unions have the principles of customer loyalty hard-wired into their business models and are now taking market share from the loyalty laggards. Fast growing direct banks, like USAA Federal Savings and ING Direct in the US and President's Choice Financial in Canada, manage to win some of the highest levels of customer advocacy achieved in any industry. But apart from a few super-regional banks, *none* of the biggest retail banks have yet to make much visible headway despite years of hit-or-miss customer initiatives. To make meaningful progress, they need to learn how to home in on the right actions that will boost loyalty among the right customers and produce attractive financial returns.
Shouldn't it be "all" instead of "none"?
TYVM.
| 5 +9 | not a single one |
Tony M
|
| 5 +1 | not one single one, not any |
Claire Cox
|
| 5 | not one |
Sheila Wilson
|
| 5 | none |
Allison Wright (X)
|
| 5 | absolutely none |
Charlesp
|
Oct 20, 2010 21:56: Claire Cox changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
PRO (1): Polangmar
Non-PRO (3): Tony M, Travelin Ann, Claire Cox
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Responses
not a single one
I think they probably started off trying to say:
"But apart from a few super-regional banks, none of the biggest retail banks has yet made much visible headway despite years of hit-or-miss customer initiatives."
And then they decided to edit it to make that end part read better, only they forgot to go back and change the first part (which in any case would then read worse!):
"But apart from a few super-regional banks, all of the biggest retail banks have yet to make much visible headway despite years of hit-or-miss customer initiatives."
Actually, the first version would still IMHO be preferable.
The intended meaning is clear, but as you rightly say, they have clearly made a right mess of it!
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2010-10-21 08:41:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Regarding the use of a sg or pl verb after 'none', I can recommend the no-nonsense attitudes expressed in this style guide (which unfortunately I can't actually find in e-form to quote from):
Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English by Eric Partridge ...
23 Aug 2010 ... All about Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English by Eric Partridge. LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for ...
www.librarything.com/.../15325
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2010-10-21 08:42:37 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Here's the ISBN if anyone wants to dig it out:
« Usage and abusage; a guide to good English; Eric Partridge » de ...
Autres identifiants : ISBN 0-241-13301-7...
www.alsatica.eu/.../Usage-and-abusage-a-guide-to-good-Engli...
| agree |
Carol Gullidge
: that's pretty much how I see it. I think you must have been posting this as I was posting in the Discussion box
8 mins
|
|
Thanks, Carol! I didn't see your discussion post till this morning.
|
|
| agree |
Sean Mullen
44 mins
|
|
Thanks, Dreamer!
|
|
| agree |
Charlesp
48 mins
|
|
Thanks, Charles!
|
|
| agree |
Filippe Vasconcellos de Freitas Guimarães
: Exactly! Well done, Tony.
6 hrs
|
|
Thanks, F/V!
|
|
| agree |
Arabic & More
7 hrs
|
|
Syukran, Amel!
|
|
| agree |
Jack Doughty
8 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Jack!
|
|
| agree |
cmwilliams (X)
: yes, although I think the intended meaning is 'none has yet made...'
10 hrs
|
|
Thanks, CMW! Yes, I feel sure you're right.
|
|
| agree |
Yunas Halim
10 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Yunaz!
|
|
| agree |
Polangmar
23 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Polangmar!
|
Spain
20 years producing 100% natural English
Native in: English (Variant: British) 
Works in: English, French to English
not one
.
This is saying that only a few super-regional banks have made visible headway. None (i.e. not one) of the others has made any progress.
| neutral |
Tony M
: Yes, but it actually says it the wrong way round; read it again carefully, and look at my explanation...
3 mins
|
|
I see what you mean Tony - I had read it as I expected it to be: "none ... have yet made"
|
none
None of the biggest retail banks *has* (None always takes a 3rd person singular verb in English.) My Portguese is not yet good, but I believe that the basic sentence structure would be, "Os bancos... nenhum não avancaram ainda...", where "nenhum" would equate to "none".
| http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/1026513/9903.htm |
| neutral |
Tony M
: But you're still overlooking the flawed logic in the statement as it stands; BTW, the insistnce on a sg verb with 'none' is now considered old hat!
10 hrs
|
United Kingdom
French & German Technical Translations
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, German to English
not one single one, not any
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 mins (2010-10-20 22:07:25 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
@ Tony: I see what you mean, but I don't think "all" could possibly work with "yet" in the sentence. I think this is the perennial problem of even native English speakers not knowing whether "none" takes the singular or plural. Maybe it's even reached the stage where either is acceptable...?
| http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/1026513/9903.htm |
| agree |
Travelin Ann
: not a single one
0 min
|
| neutral |
Tony M
: Read it again carefully, and look at my explanation... / I agree, the 'all' solution is inelegant; 'none' traditionally took sg, but that has now been declared old-hat; but sg or pl, the logic is still wrong :-(
3 mins
|
Discussion