TeX - ! Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr

[Taylor, P]

Carlos wrote:

My issue  [...] is the simple misleading message of

 Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr

When you ask an Anglophone speaking individual what from the above he/she can understand from it,, that individual might reply - and rightly so - that what the message conveys is that the \cr was applied to the newline, Hence that extra alignment (unspecified or not) has been changed. So this conversation would be nullified to start with.

I am "an Anglophone [speaking] individual".  When I read the diagnostic, I see no mention of a newline at all; why, therefore, should I interpret it as conveying "that the \cr was applied to the newline" ?  It says nothing even vaguely similar to that.

If on the other hand, I were to translate the above to Spanish, and ask a Spanish speaking individual what that message seems to convey to him/her, that very same individual  almost surely will agree with the Anglophone counterpart.

If you were to translate "Extra alignment tab has been changed into \cr" into Spanish, and publish your translation on this list, we could then ask other native Spanish speakers (Hispanophones) whether (a) they agree that your translation is accurate, and (b) how they would render your translation in good idiomatic English.  For those that are also TeXophones, we could also ask what they interpret it as meaning.

Philip Taylor
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