Apostrophe crimes

[Andy Velebil]

RSVP me....I'll be there if I'm still sucking my share of earths air.

Darn, I was doing so good too.

[DRT]

We are always watching.

[DRT]

Oh here you go, a link

I was thinking that the undergraduate in the first story complained of having his Cockburn 04 drunk by the rowing club. Published in 1933 that would make it just about thirty, an 85 in todays money.

[jdaw1]

By the way, do we have any feedback on Ms Robinson's views? (I feared another correction should I attempt the apostrophe on her first name)

Mention is hereby made of the absence of punctuation at the end of the bracketed sentence.

[LGTrotter]

By the way, do we have any feedback on Ms Robinson's views? (I feared another correction should I attempt the apostrophe on her first name)

Mention is hereby made of the absence of punctuation at the end of the bracketed sentence.

I thought I was tying my shoelaces carefully but it seems I was only tying them together. I realise I should know this but would I have been OK with 'Jancis's on this occasion? I also wonder how I would refer to more than one Jancis with a possessive apostrophe.

Brackets, gawdelpus. I realise 'parentheses' takes longer to write but I think it is more accurate, and elegant.

[jdaw1]

I also wonder how I would refer to more than one Jancis with a possessive apostrophe.

There is only one Jancis who could matter on this forum. About that, you’re safe.

[jdaw1]

I've rarely seen such a shoddy pile of festering shabbiness, a catastrophic display of inept and cankerous disdain, a disgusting mess which... oh hold on, you said critiqued, not criticised, I'm terribly sorry. Hmm, critiqued or praised, err... Yes, they're lovely, very good show.

I think he meant “cantankerous”. Also, an ellipsis should be a single character (“…”) rather than three dots (“...”).

[PhilW]

I've rarely seen such a shoddy pile of festering shabbiness, a catastrophic display of inept and cankerous disdain, a disgusting mess which... oh hold on, you said critiqued, not criticised, I'm terribly sorry. Hmm, critiqued or praised, err... Yes, they're lovely, very good show.

I think he meant “cantankerous”. Also, an ellipsis should be a single character (“…”) rather than three dots (“...”).

I meant cankerous; cantankerous would have worked, though would have been less pustulent.
Not all input devices support entry of ellipsis as single character - if that latter is a crime, I may be a regular repeat offender...

[Doggett]

A BBC quiz on apostrophe punctuation... (I shamefully only got 7/10)

http://play.bbc.co.uk/play/pen/gwcv37b8rq

And an accompanying documentary on the apostrophiser from Bristol, who would enjoy this thread and fit right in!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08kys4c

[Old Bridge]

As one having English as 2nd language and being a bad pupil, who would not learn grammar at school, I am happy enough with 6/10.

[jdaw1]

Two questions were badly formed, and we disagreed on the answer of one of them. Meaning that the BBC scored me 9/10.

But there are no crash helmets in the bible, so it should have been ten.

Your Result
9/10
Fantastic! You are a total grammar demon! Feel free to spread your pedantry far and wide.

[Glenn E.]

9/10 for me. Did not know that you add 's to plural nouns that do not end in s (men's team). Did get Jesus' crash helmet, but only because it looked correct and not because I knew the rule. Going by modern standards it should have been Jesus's crash helmet.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Going by modern standards it should have been Jesus's crash helmet.

Modern standard presumably meaning since around 1715. The St James's district of London has been so named since early Hanoverian times.

I love the English language. There are so many twists and foibles to it that trip up mother-tongue English speakers. I feel sorry for people for whom English is a second language - and usually in awe of their linguistic capabilities.

[Glenn E.]

Going by modern standards it should have been Jesus's crash helmet.

Modern standard presumably meaning since around 1715. The St James's district of London has been so named since early Hanoverian times.

When compared to biblical times? Yes, that suffices as modern.

There have always been exceptions and still are, but I believe the general switch to 's on a noun that ends in s is more recent than 1715. I was taught to base the decision on how the word is pronounced, so even in the 1970s the change was still underway. At least in rural Nebraska.

[PhilW]

9/10 for me. Did not know that you add 's to plural nouns that do not end in s (men's team). Did get Jesus' crash helmet, but only because it looked correct and not because I knew the rule. Going by modern standards it should have been Jesus's crash helmet.

Meh. 9/10 also. I was happy enough with Jesus and his helmet, but disagreed with Richard Harris and his spats (You might say Denn-is-is but you write Dennis', so why different with surname than with first name, since both are proper nouns?)

[jdaw1]

I feel sorry for people for whom English is a second language - and usually in awe of their linguistic capabilities.

I feel sorry for people for whom English is a first language — they have no excuse.

[Glenn E.]

9/10 for me. Did not know that you add 's to plural nouns that do not end in s (men's team). Did get Jesus' crash helmet, but only because it looked correct and not because I knew the rule. Going by modern standards it should have been Jesus's crash helmet.

Meh. 9/10 also. I was happy enough with Jesus and his helmet, but disagreed with Richard Harris and his spats (You might say Denn-is-is but you write Dennis', so why different with surname than with first name, since both are proper nouns?)

My understanding is that currently, Dennis's and Harris's are the correct forms. The odd (per modern standards) use of Jesus' is due to the fact that it is a biblical figure. Which, of course, means that St. James's makes no sense. Because English.

[Alex Bridgeman]

I feel sorry for people for whom English is a second language - and usually in awe of their linguistic capabilities.

I feel sorry for people for whom English is a first language — they have no excuse.

Find the ASCII codes for me for an em-dash (and an ellipsis) and I will gladly use the correct punctuation. Until then, I will continue to be lazy.

[jdaw1]

Find the ASCII codes for me for an em-dash (and an ellipsis) and I will gladly use the correct punctuation. Until then, I will continue to be lazy.

From memory: 0151 = “—”; 0133 = “…”. And curly quotation marks are 0145-0148.

[Alex Bridgeman]

— … ‘ ’ “ ”

Excellent! Thank you. I shall endeavour to be correctly punctuated in the future.

[flash_uk]

How does having the ascii codes help? Is there some way of creating the character in the post editor using the code?

[Glenn E.]

On a Windows PC, if you hold down the Alt key and type the number in question on the numeric keypad, the character in question will appear when you release the Alt key. That's why the preceding '0' for the em-dash is necessary.

[Alex Bridgeman]

On a Windows PC, if you hold down the Alt key and type the number in question on the numeric keypad, the character in question will appear when you release the Alt key. That's why the preceding '0' for the em-dash is necessary.

This is what you get with the preceding 0: —

This is what you get without it: ù

It's magic!

[flash_uk]

On a Windows PC, if you hold down the Alt key and type the number in question on the numeric keypad, the character in question will appear when you release the Alt key. That's why the preceding '0' for the em-dash is necessary.

Ah OK. Was aware of that little shortcut on Windows, but was wondering if there was some way of doing that on a mobile device…

[Glenn E.]

On Android using the Google Keyboard, switch to number input (hit the ?123 button) then hold down the hyphen to see other options.