Grammar Discussions

[Warks]

This article made me question the education standards of sports writers although I shouldn't have been surprised I guess.

Australia vs. West Indies cricket: Talking points from Day 1 of the Third Test in Sydney; Marlon Samuels, Shane Warne.

Exhibit 1:

Smith sighted Siddle’s niggling ankle injury as his reason for the swap.

He may have sighted Siddle's ankle before he cited it as the reason for the swap.

Exhibit 2:

Play will allegedly resume at 10am on day two to make up for lost time.

Someone has spent too long writing police reports.

Exhibit 3:

Despite the extensive delays, Australia was well ahead of the expected run rate as the close of play approached, finishing up with a total of 75 overs for the day.

That should have been "over rate". A minor one but still...

I'm sure there's more.

 

[Foreigner]

In America, the singular 'they' is declared Word of the Year:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...re-top-stories_wordofyear752pm:homepage/story

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In America, the singular 'they' is declared Word of the Year:

Good choice! I use it as a matter of course.

 

[andye]

Just heard on ABC a report on the 'amanciated' children besieged in Syria

 

[Foreigner]

Reporters at times get constipated.

 

[SeatBackForward]

What happened when the semicolon broke grammar laws?

It was given two consecutive sentences.

Then it went to jail for a period.

Redditors can be a hilarious lot sometimes: https://m.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/42g2ze/what_happened_when_the_semicolon_broke_grammar/

 

[JessicaTam]

What concerns me is that they only want it part time!

 

[Foreigner]

Noun missing. Attendant / person / assistant

 

[TheRealTMA]

View attachment 63481

What concerns me is that they only want it part time!

Maybe it's an airline lounge customer service, only offered occasionally?

 

[coco50]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

None that I recall. Certainly not aimed at anyone in particular.

Just annoyed I have to reread posts to get the intended meaning instead of the written meaning.

What irks me is the total lack of knowledge about how to use an apostrophe. In the English language we use the apostrophe in two separate ways:

To indicate possession

To indicate if letters have been left out.

If we are talking about a post made by Jessica, we can correctly write: Jessica's post. The apostrophe in this case indicates that the post belongs to Jessica.

If we are talking about what a great Australia Day it is, we can correctly write: It's a great Australia Day (the apostrophe here indicates that the letter "i" has been omitted from :It is.

However, when we are writing about the Esky's lid being lost we can write: The Esky's lost its lid. Even there is possession of the lid, no apostrophe should appear in the pronoun: its. Confused? Well, don't just stick an apostrophe before an "s" at the end of a word like the local fish and chip shop selling "Sea Shanty's"

 

[coco50]

Just heard on ABC a report on the 'amanciated' children besieged in Syria

How about some of the great howlers:

George Dubya Bush talking about "nucular" conflict

How about terrism

pacific (instead of specific)

 

[Warks]

"Point and case".

A favourite of mine.

Hard beat "intensive purposes" though.

 

[Hvr]

This borders on the pathetic.

Embarrassing welcome to Queensland

 

[anat0l]

This borders on the pathetic.

The more pathetic point is the continuous demonstration of our elected bureaucracy in shirking any responsibility it should be assuming. I mean, an argument over who did it (they both should be embarrassed) and who will fix it (how big an effort could it possibly be).

Oddly enough, if a resident simply proffered a fix like a big sticky label or used a marker pen to cross out the 'a', they would probably be in trouble from the law for defacing public property.

 

[Captain Halliday]

I knew things were bad at Dick Smith, but apparently finances are so tight they can't afford an apostrophe.

 

[anat0l]

I knew things were bad at Dick Smith, but apparently finances are so tight they can't afford an apostrophe.

Some ideas:

• Their choices were add the apostrophe and cause a line-feed, or reduce the font size so it fits on one line, along the length of an A4 sheet of paper.
• The people at the store were paid to sell product, not write signs correctly.
• The intended meaning is hardly affected by the absence of the apostrophe.
• More than half the people who go to the store probably will either (a) not notice, (b) not know what is wrong, (c) not know how to correct the sign.

Ten points to anyone who can come up with anything close to a systematic, reasonable estimate of how much in not-printed ink would have been saved by not printing an apostrophe.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I knew things were bad at Dick Smith, but apparently finances are so tight they can't afford an apostrophe.
View attachment 64556

Never known 'receivers' to waste money on apostrophes before they have taken their pound ($$$) or flesh.

Our course they could be having a special sale of HIFI 'receivers' only!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Channel 9's (rather good) Embassy program was narrating the story of an unfortunate person on 'tenderhooks'.

 

[coco50]

I knew things were bad at Dick Smith, but apparently finances are so tight they can't afford an apostrophe.
View attachment 64556

The difficult thing would be to place the apostrophe in the right place!

 

[anat0l]

The difficult thing would be to place the apostrophe in the right place!

RECEIVERS S'ALE?



(Actually, having been to a DSE recently, a more accurate 'correction' would be RECEIVERS ''SALE'')