Apostrophe crimes

[jdaw1]

The wines on the night we’re:

[Alex Bridgeman]

I didn’t write that! IOS did. Damn autocorrect.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Remind me, are we allowed to report posts by people who have American English as their first language or is this thread just for the admonishment re-educationof the native English speaker?

[DRT]

Remind me, are we allowed to report posts by people who have American English as their first language or is this thread just for the admonishment re-educationof the native English speaker?

The use of Americanisms should not be reported as they can't help it. Misuse of apostrophes and general grammar crimes should be reported.

The current POTUS is generally excused under the general "he can't help it" rule.

[PhilW]

The current POTUS is generally excused under the general "he can't help it" rule.

"They say I used apostrophys wrong - fake news! Fake news. We have the best apostrophys, they just didnt understand what I said. Fake news, so sad."

[StuartC]

"They say I used apostrophys wrong - fake news! Fake news. We have the best apostrophys, they just didnt understand what I said. Fake news, so sad."

Is it childish to point out there's no "y" in apostrophe/apostrophes; or the missing punctuation in "didn't" when it's clearly a popular representation of a populist representative...?

[PhilW]

"They say I used apostrophys wrong - fake news! Fake news. We have the best apostrophys, they just didnt understand what I said. Fake news, so sad."

Is it childish to point out there's no "y" in apostrophe/apostrophes; or the missing punctuation in "didn't" when it's clearly a popular representation of a populist representative...?

It was, of course, deliberate satire.

[DRT]

"They say I used apostrophys wrong - fake news! Fake news. We have the best apostrophys, they just didnt understand what I said. Fake news, so sad."

Is it childish to point out there's no "y" in apostrophe/apostrophes; or the missing punctuation in "didn't" when it's clearly a popular representation of a populist representative...?

It was, of course, deliberate satire.

Perhaps some random CAPITALIZATION would have made that more bigly Obvious?

[jdaw1]

https://twitter.com/jdaw1/status/1111768924293656576

[jdaw1]

On it's own this is a fruity and flavoursome White Port

[Alex Bridgeman]

On it's own this is a fruity and flavoursome White Port

Embarrasing. Thank you for catching it. Now corrected.

[jdaw1]

Holding Mike to a high standard.

The Monkey is here. He guesses Warre ‘77.

[flash_uk]

Holding Mike to a high standard.

The Monkey is here. He guesses Warre ‘77.

...allowing me to learn that the apostrophe on an iPhone is not where I thought it was!

[DRT]

Evening Standard: Apostrophe society shuts down because 'ignorance and laziness have won'

[jdaw1]

Fussy, I know.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Is this your new career? Driving the family tall truck?

[Andy Velebil]

In fairness, from someone who has had to try to program one of those sign boards on more than one occasion, I can attest they aren't always easy and they don't always allow you to enter things the way you intended. And you shouldn't take pics when you are operating a motor vehicle.

[jdaw1]

In fairness, from someone who has had to try to program one of those sign boards on more than one occasion, I can attest they aren't always easy and they don't always allow you to enter things the way you intended. And you shouldn't take pics when you are operating a motor vehicle.

I was standing on the pavement, waiting for a bus.

Indeed, the Wisemanmobile is being sold for scrap.

[jdaw1]

There is much that could be said about the Trump impeachment. And I realise that this may well be the least of it. Nonetheless:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51408704
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/trump-i ... house.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/07/80390441 ... awyer-says

why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House

[DRT]

There is much that could be said about the Trump impeachment. And I realise that this may well be the least of it. Nonetheless:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51408704
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/trump-i ... house.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/07/80390441 ... awyer-says

why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House

Perhaps that mistake should be credited to David Pressman as the news organisations you ave linked to are simply quoting what he said?

[jdaw1]

Perhaps that mistake should be credited to David Pressman as the news organisations you ave linked to are simply quoting what he said?

It was my intention to ‘credit’ David Pressman. The news sources were cited only because I could not find online a definitive original.

[DRT]

Screenshot 2022-02-23 at 18.03.04.png (423.13 KiB) Viewed 24853 times

[jdaw1]

It’s not only me.

[PhilW]

bbc.jpg (219.49 KiB) Viewed 2344 times

and/or

bbc2.jpg (34.09 KiB) Viewed 2344 times

[MigSU]

Inexcusable. It doesn't even make sense, there's no need for an apostrophe anywhere in that sentence.

[jdaw1]

My food correct. A pedant might suggest that it should be “Alex (pommy42)” rather than “Pommy42 (Alex)”, and “BRPetrie” rather than “BRP”.

For the sake of the well being of any pedant's and that they may sleep well at night I have correcting this hideous organisational offence .....

[jdaw1]

In Streatham, on Telford Avenue, at ///atom.lifts.couches, on the road:


Yes, an apostrophe can indicate missing letters. And the word “Roundabout” has been abbreviated by the omission of four letters, all vowels, none of which are where the apostrophe is.

[PhilW]

In Streatham, on Telford Avenue, at ///atom.lifts.couches, on the road:


Yes, an apostrophe can indicate missing letters. And the word “Roundabout” has been abbreviated by the omission of four letters, all vowels, none of which are where the apostrophe is.

That did, in fact, make me laugh out loud! For goodness' sake!

[jdaw1]

That did, in fact, make me laugh out loud! For goodness' sake!

Agreed: schoolboy error.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Schl’by er’rr, surely?

[PhilW]

Schl’by er’rr, surely?

Have you been drinking? And don't call me Shirley.

[akzy]

In Romania...

20241130_172610.jpg (236.71 KiB) Viewed 17544 times

I've been told that the Romanian language doesn't even use a'postrophes.

[MigSU]

Portuguese doesn't use them either. Well, almost doesn't. There are some niche uses.

[Glenn E.]

Portuguese doesn't use them either. Well, almost doesn't. There are some niche uses.

Yes, but Portuguese makes up for its lack of apostrophes by having 12 (ish) accented vowels plus an accented consonant for good measure.

á, é, í, ó, ú, â, ê, ô, ã, õ, à, and rarely ò (though I haven't seen this one yet). And apparently the language used to also have è, ì, and ù.

The consonant is, of course, ç. My understanding is that ñ is only used in Spanish.

[MigSU]

Portuguese doesn't use them either. Well, almost doesn't. There are some niche uses.

Yes, but Portuguese makes up for its lack of apostrophes by having 12 (ish) accented vowels plus an accented consonant for good measure.

á, é, í, ó, ú, â, ê, ô, ã, õ, à, and rarely ò (though I haven't seen this one yet). And apparently the language used to also have è, ì, and ù.

The consonant is, of course, ç. My understanding is that ñ is only used in Spanish.

You are correct on all counts. Impressive.

[jdaw1]

The consonant is, of course, ç.

Poças.

The e macron, as in Croft Sērikos, isn’t proper Portuguese.

[Glenn E.]

What's "fun" is that the only use I've seen (so far) for à is as an abreviation for... "a a". Yes, they shorten 2 x 'a' to just 'à', but only when the two letters are different words.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Portuguese doesn't use them either. Well, almost doesn't. There are some niche uses.

Perhaps a lot more when spoken than when written? Such as “….de ir”, which is only ever spoken as “…d’ir”. Caused me lots of confusion at first.

But no more confusion than the usual Portuguese practice of only saying half the syllables in a sentence. Or inventing syllables which aren’t in a sentence.

“O que estudas português?” is normally spoken as “Oo kek stoodas português?” Honestly! And people say English is a difficult language to master!!

[MigSU]

Portuguese doesn't use them either. Well, almost doesn't. There are some niche uses.

Perhaps a lot more when spoken than when written? Such as “….de ir”, which is only ever spoken as “…d’ir”. Caused me lots of confusion at first.

But no more confusion than the usual Portuguese practice of only saying half the syllables in a sentence. Or inventing syllables which aren’t in a sentence.

“O que estudas português?” is normally spoken as “Oo kek stoodas português?” Honestly! And people say English is a difficult language to master!!

Yes, those were the niche uses that came to mind - the change from «de/do/da» to «d'». There are a few written ones - Borda d'Água is a well known publication in Portugal - but you're absolutely right that, were we to write as we speak, there would be thousands of examples.

I agree that the relative disconnect between the written and the spoken language is probably a nightmare to anyone trying to get at least a small grasp of the language

[Glenn E.]

“O que estudas português?” is normally spoken as “Oo kek stoodas português?” Honestly! And people say English is a difficult language to master!!

Brazilian is much more... sensible? It doesn't just add 'sh' to the ends of words randomly, and leading/trailing vowels are usually still pronounced.

Your example above would be "oh keh estoodas português" but... also wouldn't be said that way in the first place. That reads as "what you study Portuguese?" to me, with "tu" before "estudas" implied. If you want to ask someone if they study Portuguese, it would just be "você estuda Português" or "tu estudas Português".

Setúbal is "SCHTOOble" in Portuguese but "seTOOble" in Brazilian.

[MigSU]

This has now become the unofficial Portuguese language thread.

[jdaw1]

This has now become the unofficial Portuguese language thread.

It is a friendlier use for this thread.

But still, we are all at ever-present risk. Use them well.