Talk:save as

This is of course not really a verb, but a verb + preposition. As such, it seemingly violates English by sometimes accepting two distinct objects: "save file as homework.txt". To parse this, one must consider save and as as separate words. Nevertheless, the term sees frequent usage as the imperative "save as", and in this use it would be nonsense since the preposition "as" always has to take a target. Basically, this is a very pathological term...


 * Where do you see this "imperative" other than in user interfaces, where it is usually followed by an ellipsis to indicate that it isn't a complete statement ("Save As...")? There are similar constructs like Go To... (a cell in a spreadsheet). Equinox ◑ 22:29, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Still problematic. If it's transitive, as stated, can I say "please save-as this document"? Equinox ◑ 21:52, 22 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Dialog box content seem to form their own kind of grammar. For instance I use "inspect element" as a verb. So yes. – Nixinova [&zwnj;T|C] 02:40, 12 October 2021 (UTC)