>>>>>>>Was it here or was it in the book I'm currently reading. It is the notion that for native speakers a word can have more meanings, but that there is almost always only one meaning that is kind of the official meaning.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Except in English, I presume. The word can have several main meanings - take pound, for instance. It can be money, it can be unit of weight, it can be a verb or the place for stray dogs and cars. Which one is the main meaning?
>>>>>
>>>>>Well, perhaps I should elaborate. Even in English it is the case. Sure, pound has different meaning and all that you mentioned are official meanings. But they are only so in a certain context. All not-native speakers have learnt that the English use the word pound for their money and that their weigh system also contains that word. Both usages are usual and official. But there are equivalent words for the money-word pound that are understood only by the native speakers, while those words do have official meanings for other contexts. So, my idea is that here, on this international forum, the word pound should be used, and any of those other words should not be used, when refering to English money.
>>>>
>>>>A pound money (sterling) £ can be a "nicker", a "quid" (the last 2 only ever used in the singular, eg "twenty nicker/quid") or a "sov" (short for sovereign).
>>>
>>>You make my point. But how about the idea that such informal or dialectic words should not be used in international forums?
>>
>>How about everyone just says whatever they want and if you don't understand, you ask?
>
>The problem is that incidentally the non-native speaker may THINK (s)he understands well enough.

Don't see the problem then. Just because they understood something different than what was intended, as long as they're happy, all is good. You're not in a relationship are you? <g>