Graham_Wright
Well-Known Member
That was a gentle way of delivering a poke!
apostrophes
- Thread starter ghostlymoron
- Start date
JohnGC
Well-Known Member
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".
This used to crop up from time to time when the BBC TV News had two presenters.
They would be taken to task for sign-offs that went something like, "Goodnight from Tom and me.".
Every so often (slow news days) they would read one of these letters and state that, "Tom and me" is correct, but "you and me" is not and should be "you and I".
whipper_snapper
Well-Known Member
I feel uncomfortable writing 'He gave the book to Joe and me', but is correct.
It's just like the lounge over here, innit?
It's just like the lounge over here, innit?
DJE
Well-Known Member
Touche!
guernseyman
Well-Known Member
In his book 'Plain Words' Sir Ernest Gowers says that there is no universally accepted rule for words ending in 's'. He suggests that if the word is a plural ending in 's' then an apostrophe should be added at the end (strangers' gallery), while if the word is not a plural, and especially if it is a monosyllable, add 's (Mr Jones's room). Additionally he suggests that the apostrophe is needed with single letters (mind your p's and q's).
stevebrassett
Well-Known Member
The "and I" or "and me" question can be resolved by removing the other party. In your case this becomes "He gave the book to me", which is, of course, correct. Sometimes it does appear awkward, though.
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
No. We are in the vanguard of those wishing to update the language to satisfy out modern needs.As it stands it seems the English and the worst as speaking English.
However, Estuarial mash-ups such as "off of" instead of "from" ("I got it off of my mate.") continue to annoy me.
alteredoutlook
Well-Known Member
my pet hate is when people write 'loose' when they mean 'lose' and vice versa.....
oldvarnish
Well-Known Member
Less is the singular form of fewer. Hence: there is less cake left, but there are fewer cakes left
That's why a supermarket had to change its signs a few years back to 'Ten Items or Fewer' Not 'less' as they originally wrote it.
The reason for this construction is that the full phrase is "....goodnight from Tom (and from) me", in which the words in parentheses are "understood".
The apostrophe dilemma can generally be solved by remembering that it represents an "e" that has been elided e.g. St Jameses.
At least, that's what I remember from school!
JohnGC
Well-Known Member
Our modern needs?
"I got it off of me mate."
Or are the Yanks the vanguard? I give you, "Brain Fart"
maby
Well-Known Member
"Updating the language to satisfy our modern needs" just involves adding new words where necessary. The changes that are being discussed here are simply laziness or lack of education - using the apostrophe to signify a plural serves no purpose in satisfying modern needs.
LONG_KEELER
Well-Known Member
As the originator of " Nut's and Bolt's " I still don't see the problem. It looks right to me.
On a less lighter note, I think some care has to be taken not to discourage people from having a go at posting.
Attention deficit, word blindness, dyslexia , a combination or pure stress/depression can contribute to errors . Modern spell checkers have been a boon . When an underlined error is indicated, the drop down suggestions, although spelt correctly , still make it possible to select the wrong word. Some of the better one's, or is it ones, include grammar errors, but you still have to see and understand the problem.
maby
Well-Known Member
As the originator of " Nut's and Bolt's " I still don't see the problem. It looks right to me.
On a less lighter note, I think some care has to be taken not to discourage people from having a go at posting.
Attention deficit, word blindness, dyslexia , a combination or pure stress/depression can contribute to errors . Modern spell checkers have been a boon . When an underlined error is indicated, the drop down suggestions, although spelt correctly , still make it possible to select the wrong word. Some of the better one's, or is it ones, include grammar errors, but you still have to see and understand the problem.
I don't know you or your background, so I will not comment on your specific linguistic abilities. However, there are plenty of people who are so consistently wrong that they must actually believe that they are right. If it's down to "Attention deficit, word blindness, dyslexia , a combination or pure stress/depression ", then one would expect them to be correct some of the time!
DanTribe
Well-Known Member
Without wishing to query an eminent authority, should there be an apostrophe in last word of the phrase,
"what has it got in it's nasty pocketses?"
"what has it got in it's nasty pocketses?"
johnalison
Well-Known Member
The greengrocer's apostrophe (nut's & bolt's) has been around for a long time and was normal usage a couple of hundred years ago but for the last hundred and fifty or so it has not been used in educated writing. The problem is not a moral one to my mind, but whatever the reason that brings it about, it holds up reading for those of us who are not accustomed to it and I would recommend to those who have not considered the matter that they try to avoid it if they want to put a point across to a general audience such as these forums.
johnalison
Well-Known Member
"pocketses" doesn't exist as a word except as a joke, so it would be "nasty pockets", and specifically, "its (without apostrophe) nasty pockets".
alahol2
Well-Known Member
As it stands it seems the English and the worst as speaking English.
This is the type of thing that annoys me. I don't know if it is a function of predictive text, spell checkers or whatever. It is happening more and more frequently on these fora. PLEASE stop it!
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
fora?