Talk:Pre-order incentive

Alternate vs. alternative

Alternate as an adjective means "every other", just as the verb to alternate means to go back and forth between two positions. Alternative means a second choice or option. It's a very common mistake, to the point where the casual reader is not aware of the incorrect usage. (Check out alternate, which I haven't edited.) Alternative is the correct word to use in the article, since Master Quest is an optional version of Ocarina of Time, not every second version. Changing this to an incorrect word to avoid two v sounds in a row is just silly. --Pagrashtak 04:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually, "alternate" can also hold the meaning "constituting an alternative", according to Merriam-Webster.( And for that matter, "alternative" can mean "occurring or succeeding by turns".) Saying "alternate version" is grammatically correct, and it avoids a double "v" sound when read aloud, which in my opinion is better stylistically. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 16:22, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

To answer your edit summary comment, a compromise was necessary because two editors (and apparently an anon) disagreed on how to word an article. A quick search on the internet will show that this is a point of contention, so I think switching to a different word is perhaps the best way to avoid confusion. --Pagrashtak 02:49, 4 February 2006 (UTC)