apostrophes

ghostlymoron

ghostlymoron

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Not wishing to hijack the nut's and bolt's thread, are there any circumstances where the pedants amongst us would use inappropriate apostrophes. How about the plural of GPS? GPSs looks wrong although it's correct. GPS's looks right when it is wrong.
Next, 'fewer' or 'less'?
 
GPSs seems fine to me.

Fewer is generally used with discrete numbers - e.g. There are fewer lorries than cars on the road.

Less is used more with non-discrete amounts - e.g. there is less sugar in a cake than flour.
 
ghostlymoron said:
Not wishing to hijack the nut's and bolt's thread, are there any circumstances where the pedants amongst us would use inappropriate apostrophes. How about the plural of GPS? GPSs looks wrong although it's correct. GPS's looks right when it is wrong.
Next, 'fewer' or 'less'?
Click to expand...
A Lounge subject, nothing at all to do with boat`s
blackball1.jpg
 
misplaced apostrophes do seriously offend me. I'm less pedantic about fewer vs. less.

The worst of all - probably even worse than incorrect use of an apostrophe - is "methodology" - I spend my life correcting this - as Maureen Lipman said "you've got an ology, you must be a scientist!"
 
ghostlymoron said:
Not wishing to hijack the nut's and bolt's thread, are there any circumstances where the pedants amongst us would use inappropriate apostrophes. How about the plural of GPS? GPSs looks wrong although it's correct. GPS's looks right when it is wrong.
Next, 'fewer' or 'less'?
Click to expand...

Yep .. All the time.. (Apparently)
 
Strictly, GPS is not a noun but an acronym for Global Positioning System. Given that there are now three Global Positioning Systems (the US one, Glonass and Galileo) there are a few - very few - occasions when you might want to use the plural of GPS as an acronym, which is GPS for Global Positioning Systems.

What you are asking about is the plural of a GPS device, which is obviously GPS devices!
 
oldbilbo said:
Er, not the last time I looked..... :rolleyes:
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Well if we're in pedant mode i think he's right, there is only one GPS (the US's satellite derived positioning system) but there are other satellite derived positioning systems such as the Russian and the European systems.
 
People in general make many grammatical errors or use incorrect words, I am sure I do too. I generally miss apostrophes when I am typing quickly and don't pick up that I missed it..

Others I see..

I often see "Your" instead or "You're" and "Are" instead or "Our".

Seems the word "amount" has replaced "number" eg. "There was a large amount or people here" instead of "There was a large number of people here".

Also "sitting" seems to have been replaced by "sat" eg. "I was sat on that chair" instead of "I was sitting on that chair".

Of course in 50 or 100 years time all these things will be accepted as "proper" English as the language evolves. As it stands it seems the English and the worst as speaking English. :)
 
The worst is a swap of "of" in place of "have" such as:

"He should have arrived at 11.00" or "He should've arrived at 11.00"

being mangled to

"He should of arrived at 11.00"

Drives me mad!
 
Or perhaps the single most common error I hear, even on BBC radio stations, is "Me and Tom went to the movies" instead of "Tom and I went to the movies". :)
 
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wipe_out said:
Or perhaps the single most common error I hear, even on BBC radio stations, is "Me and Tom when to the movies" instead of "Tom and I went to the movies". :)
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:) That's a combination of a grammatical error and plain bad manners!
 
DJE said:
GPS system!
Click to expand...

That is as wrong as "PIN number"

I once got an article published in the school magazine. Before printing I discussed any corrections with my English teacher: we both got stuck on the phrase "my boss's office", and to this day I'm still not sure if it correct. In the end, we changed it to "the office of my boss".
 
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