Grammar Discussions

[RooFlyer]

I think the second 's' has has fallen away quite some time ago, and is no longer in common usage. The rule these days is to place the ' before the s for singular and after the s for plural if the s indicates plural.

This also occurs when the singular word ends in 's'.

e.g. Charles' wife not Charles's wife.

That reminds me when I was living in Quebec about 1990 and the province brought in another round of language laws. All signs had to be in the French language (even commercial ones), except in desingnated Anglo areas of Montreal, where English was allowed, but the equivalent French had to be plus grand et plus priminent. (Tabernac!)

One consequence was that "Simpson's" Department store became "Simpsons"; "Hudson's Bay Company" became "Hudsons" and so on. To this day there is a warehouse full of possessive apostrophes somewhere in Montreal awaiting the repeal of those stupid language laws (in a country that is officially bilingual).

 

[anat0l]

I think the second 's' has [-]has[/-] fallen away quite some time ago, and is no longer in common usage. The rule these days is to place the ' before the s for singular and after the s for plural if the s indicates plural.

This also occurs when the singular word ends in 's'.

e.g. Charles' wife not Charles's wife.

The "'s" tends to get quite messy due to differences in pronunciation as well as convention. I tend to just add the singular apostrophe on any word ending in 's' to denote the possessive, but when you pronounce it, you know sometimes the written is incongruent with the speech - the wife of Charles, the house belonging to the Joneses, the decision of the referees, the cat belonging to Mrs Chambers, the diary belonging to Bridget Jones......

I won't even touch the pedantry which is missing in the following sentence:

Our lunch consisted of three pieces of battered cod and three dollars worth of chips.

 

[TheEmu]

So you are implying that I need to infer something.

Thanks.

*files distinction away for future reference*

My implication is that your inference is correct.

 

[QF WP]

Neighbour David Casey, who lives across the street, said he didn't know the man who died but said new tenants had moved in in recent months, the Brisbane Times reports.

Sentence structuring isn't that bl00dy difficult. "In" should never be together twice....try:

Neighbour David Casey, who lives across the street, said he didn't know the man who died but said in recent months, new tenants had moved in, the Brisbane Times reports.

Journalists and editors who should know better....

 

[froggerADL]

I just saw this classic as a comment to the story about SYD-DFW on ausbt.com.au:

Would of loved to of seen BNE with a 2nd A380 member.

:shock:

 

[Pushka]

I just saw this classic as a comment to the story about SYD-DFW on ausbt.com.au:

Would of loved to of seen BNE with a 2nd A380 member.

:shock:

Groan. I would of loved not to of seen that quote.

Off and of. Too and to.

 

[QF WP]

Groan. I would of loved not to of seen that quote.

Off and of. Too and to.

Of and have in the example above. Simple mistake that mangles the sentence

 

[anat0l]

Of and have in the example above.

Nope - both 'have' instead of 'of' in the example.

Double words is rather odd - I've seen 'that that' and 'had had', but not 'in in' before.

 

[Pushka]

I did a 'to to' today. Too busy to try to restructure the sentence to change it.

 

[JohnK]

This is a good thread.

I don't remember doing any of this at school. I mustn't have been paying attention or skipped class.

 

[rogerkambah]

This is a good thread.

I don't remember doing any of this at school. I mustn't have been paying attention or skipped class.

I feel sure that you were busy reading Greek classics (in Greek).

 

[SeatBackForward]

This is a good thread.

I don't remember doing any of this at school. I mustn't have been paying attention or skipped class.

So standards slipping isn't actually a recent phenomena at all?

 

[Shelf]

This is a good thread.

I don't remember doing any of this at school. I mustn't have been paying attention or skipped class.

you never skipped class?

 

[JessicaTam]

This is a good thread.

I don't remember doing any of this at school. I mustn't have been paying attention or skipped class.

I think I learnt my basis in grammar from my grade 5 english teacher who had us parsing sentences. Everything else followed from that.

 

[anat0l]

I did a 'to to' today. Too busy to try to restructure the sentence to change it.

Try this on for size!

My boss indignantly demanded the report, which was meant to be completed by now, now.

Of course, there are much better ways of expressing that sentence.

Though in South Africa, saying "now now" is a way of basically reinforcing the urgency of something.

 

[JohnM]

So standards slipping isn't actually a recent phenomena at all?

Phenomenon, for singular, please.

 

[TheEmu]

I think I learnt my basis in grammar from my grade 5 english teacher who had us parsing sentences. Everything else followed from that.

So your interest in grammar wasn't just a parsing phase...

 

[JohnK]

I feel sure that you were busy reading Greek classics (in Greek).

Hmmm.

I finished year 3 in Greece and my uncle made a mistake here and I did 2 months of Year 2 and then started a full year of year 3. My brother who is 3 years younger (-11 days) was only 2 years behind me in school. I was dux in Year 6. By the time I went to high school I lost interest. I passed the HSC without opening a text book or taking notes. What a waste.

 

[anat0l]

I think I learnt my basis in grammar from my grade 5 english teacher who had us parsing sentences. Everything else followed from that.

I credit my grade 12 teacher - who was the Head of Department of English at the time - in assisting the most in my English proficiency. I learned a lot more about sentence structure, expression / avoiding verbosity, grammar and word selection.

Only thing was that working under him was really, really tough. No matter how hard I tried, except for oral presentations and one exam, I could never get better than an A- mark for English assessment.

 

[JohnK]

you never skipped class?

LOL. We were very good at it. In Year 9 I skipped ~80 days of school. My report card said ~2 days absent sick with a note from Epstein's mother.

By the way I am not proud of it. Looking at this thread I have missed a lot and my head hurts now trying to catch up.