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enthusiast
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Even the English teaching institution I used to work in had "it's" instead of "its" in one of its banners, that in addition to all the "it's" instead of "its" I see in official documents or company advertising messages makes me wonder if anyone else has noticed this trend to make this common mistake even at professional fields?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Apostrophes can be pretty annoying.'It's the pits'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it is one i make way to often.. (i've been privately chastised!)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Enough of us keep making the same mistake it'll stop being a mistake.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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and then will come your's, and her's, and their's, and our's and.. his'??
-joe (mi'ne eyes hurt) friday
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Carpal Tunnel
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mistake
What do people expect, when it breaks one of the few "rules" that English orthography has. First off, its as the possessive form of the third person singular personal pronoun is an innovation. It used to be his, but its won out sometime in the later 16th century. Second off, most of the other possessive forms of pronouns are irregular, except for one's. Why? About the only rationalization I can come up with, it is to purposely trip people up and have them making mistakes. Third off, I really don't think the apostrophe adds much to the mix. English must be one of a set of a few languages which hasn't had a spelling reform, ever. Fourth off, why are so-called abbreviations which are actually contractions, use the apostrophe? D'r Jekyll and M'r Hyde. Now that I'd like to see.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Log: Oh indeed I have, while I concur wholeheartedly with tsu's comment
dalehileman
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>tsu's comment
is that the contraction or the possessive? should it be 'tsu''s'??
-joe (asking the tough ones) friday
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addict
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>most "professional" common mistake
I'd put my money on there, their, and they're.
There always being misused.
(He he he).
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Another misuse of apostrophes which is one of my pet peeves is the use of a name on a mailbox or a doormat, which reads "The Smith's" (insert name) rather than "The Smiths".... unless the family is bragging about their ownership of the domicile (and even then, assuming that there is more than one Smith living in the residence, it should read "The Smiths'")
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Pooh-Bah
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dalehileman
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Another misuse of apostrophes which is one of my pet peeves is the use of a name on a mailbox or a doormat, which reads "The Smith's" (insert name) rather than "The Smiths".... unless the family is bragging about their ownership of the domicile (and even then, assuming that there is more than one Smith living in the residence, it should read "The Smiths'") is the head of the household. The usage is the same as the head of a clan being known as, e.g., The MacGregor. The possessive is used to indicate that the house is owned solely by The Smith, the one with the name on the deed, and not shared with the bank. I.e., the mortgage is paid off.
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Pooh-Bah
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In most cases, then, it ought to be "The Bank's".
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Carpal Tunnel
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In most cases, then, it ought to be "The Bank's". Ahem. I.e., the mortgage is paid off.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Most cases; not the case you mentioned.
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The Oxford Companion to the English Language page 75: There was formerly a respectable tradition (17-19c) of using the apostrophe for noun plurals, especially in loanwords ending in a vowel (as in We do confess Errata's, Leonard Lichfield, 1641, and Comma's are used, Philip Luckcombe, 1771) and in the consonants s, z, ch, sh, (as in waltz's and cotillions, Washington Irving, 1804). Although this practice is rare in 20c standard usage, the apostrophe of plurality continues in at least five areas: (1) with abbreviations such as V.I.P.'s or VIP's, although such forms as VIPs are now widespread. (2) With letters of the alphabet, as in His i's are just like his a's and Dot your i's and cross your t's. In the phrase do's and don'ts, the apostrophe of plurality occurs in the first word but not the second, which has the apostrophe of omission: by and large, the use of two apostrophes close together (as in don't's) is avoided. (3) In decade dates, such as the 1980's, although such apostrophe-free forms as the 1980s are widespread, as are such truncations as the '80s, the form the '80's being unlikely. (4) In family names, especially if they end in -s, as in keeping up with the Jones's, as opposed to the Joneses, a form that is also common. (5) in the non-standard ('illiterate') use often called in BrE the greengrocer's apostrophe, as in apple's 55p per lb and We sell the original shepherds pie's (notice in a shop window, Canterbury, England).
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Now I have to look up loanwords.
That double negative in the subject line reminds me of a personal favorite, “He don't know no better.” When I hear it I have to decide whether or not the irony is intentional.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have to decide whether or not the irony is intentional. It would depend partly on whether what the person didn't know was a grammatical fact and partly on whether the speaker had the emphatic multiple negative as part of their native dialect. In this partcular case, considering zmjezhd's status as a linguist of some note I would say that the irony was unquestionably intentional. A loanword is a word that is taken unchanged from another language, e.g., schadenfreude from the German.
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Carpal Tunnel
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zmjezhd's status as a linguist of some note C# perhaps?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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C# perhaps?
The language or the sound? If the former, I prefer Java, and if the latter I am at best a hemidemisemiquaver.
But it was kind of you to say it, Faldo.
As for what I meant by changing the title, which words are causing confusion?
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Thanks for the definition. For a word we're keeping, however, my ilk would have used keeper.
Some-ness of note noted.
My observation about ironic usage did not critique anyone posting in this thread.
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