ASF spelling and grammar lessons

[insider]

You mean 'tease'.

LMAO Gold

 

[Julia]

Thanks Judd!

Well I stand corrected. Just goes to show we can all improve our grammar and spelling irrespective of what we think we already know.

Well I disagree. I think Joe's original example was correct because 'people' is of itself a plural and therefore the apostrophe should come before the 's'.
The alternative would be to use the word 'persons' in which case the apostrophe would come after the 's' because the actual 's' makes the singular word 'person' plural. Heavens, this is very hard to dissect.

For a definitive ruling, contact Roly Sussex, Professor of Applied Language Studies: http://www.arts.uq.edu.au/slccs/index.html?page=18094&pid=.
He can answer any question about the English language.

Anyway, I fervently second Joe's plea for some attention to proof reading.
There are way too many misspellings and misuses of apostrophes.
Why is it that so many people are so enthusiastic about adding gratuitous apostrophes seemingly before final 's' in a word????
Example seen so often: "banana's for sale"!!

 

[numbercruncher]

Once the Liberals get ousted and the education system gets fixed I think we may see improvement in about a decade

 

[insider]

Well I disagree. I think Joe's original example was correct because 'people' is of itself a plural and therefore the apostrophe should come before the 's'.
The alternative would be to use the word 'persons' in which case the apostrophe would come after the 's' because the actual 's' makes the singular word 'person' plural. Heavens, this is very hard to dissect.

For a definitive ruling, contact Roly Sussex, Professor of Applied Language Studies: http://www.arts.uq.edu.au/slccs/index.html?page=18094&pid=.
He can answer any question about the English language.

Anyway, I fervently second Joe's plea for some attention to proof reading.
There are way too many misspellings and misuses of apostrophes.
Why is it that so many people are so enthusiastic about adding gratuitous apostrophes seemingly before final 's' in a word????
Example seen so often: "banana's for sale"!!

When you take my name and make it possessive it turns from Dennis to Dennis'

For example:

Dennis' bum looks cute in that new suit!

Apparently you can also add another s if you wanted; Dennis's. But in my opinion it looks weird.

 

[Julia]

When you take my name and make it possessive it turns from Dennis to Dennis'

For example:

Dennis' bum looks cute in that new suit!

Apparently you can also add another s if you wanted; Dennis's. But in my opinion it looks weird.

You are, of course, quite right with your example. That has no connection, though, with what I was pointing out above.

And, sadly, none of us are in the happy position of being able to comment on whether or not your bum does in fact look cute in that new suit!

 

[insider]

You are, of course, quite right with your example. That has no connection, though, with what I was pointing out above.

And, sadly, none of us are in the happy position of being able to comment on whether or not your bum does in fact look cute in that new suit!

But you can trust me lol

 

[Whiskers]

You were lucky. I was taught spelling by a sadistic teacher who would go around the class asking students to spell a word. If you got it wrong you got the cane. Spelling was not my best subject

I was taught english by a very, very pretty lady in mini skirts in grade 8. Didn't learn much.

I was taught english by a bad tempered old fashioned man who tended to sneak up behind and give us a clout over the ears, in grade 9 and 10. Too petrified of him to learn there.

Just as bad in science. He would just turn around from the blackboard and chuck some chalk or the duster at us. We got a bit of our own back with him though. When he turned back to the blackboard, we'd toss him with chalk. Didn't do much Good in science either.

 

[cmh888]

How are your heterograph editing skills?


Last Monday, I one/won one/won pair/pear of pared/paired pears/pares. My friend one/won to/too, only she won/one to/two pears. Her mum won/one for/four, and kept the fore/four for/fore … you’ll/yule never guess … you’ll/yule dinner (I heard she was inviting Yul Brynner). Anyway, enough about the pares/pears, time has lapsed and I need to do my laps/lapse as I would like my waste/waist to waste/waist away. I swim weather/whether the whether/weather is fine or fowl/foul, but always watch out for lingering fowl/foul. Speaking of watching, my watch is broken. I can’t remember witch/which witch/which borrowed it last, but I here/hear she through/threw it out the window while travelling through/threw a tunnel. My retriever retrieved it. Phew! A lovely dog, he’ll/heel he’ll/heel on command, but doesn’t enjoy running beside me while I pedal and peddle, selling a remedy of flower and flour. I based/baste my remedy on an ancient recipe that only works if you baste/based it first. The flowers are picked from deep in a lair/layer, and carefully spread out in a lair/layer. I’m starting to tyre/tire of pedalling and peddling, so I am thinking I mite/might higher/hire out my business and strive for higher/hire things. My next main/mane venture could be trimming mains/manes on show horses. I might/mite right/write to the hoarse/horse association to make sure I am making the right/write choice. Eyed/I’d hate to be I’d/eyed as indecisive. Well, I’m sure we’ve/weave all had enough of this rambling peace/piece. Weave/We’ve got to get back to weaving dreams of getting rich by trading stocks!

Next installment ... punctuation ...

 

[ghotib]

Those who love to read and who find the English language endlessly fascinating (you listening, Joe!) might enjoy the book "Words and Rules, The Ingredients of Language", by Steven Pinker. You might enjoy even more his earlier book "The Language Instinct". Both provide insight into how people learn and use language, how languages work, and how "mistakes" in language usage demonstrate how minds and languages work. They're also both very entertainingly written.

Also very entertaining and considerably more specific is "Modern Australian Usage", edited by Nicholas Hudson. Here's the start of his article on the apostrophe:

The apostrophe is used in English in two ways: (a) To indicate the dropping out of some letter(s), as in can't' (b) To flag a possessive form, as in the dog's dinner. We will see, however, that (b) originated as a version of (a).

There are four usages of the apostrophe:
(1) those which are logical and 'correct';
(2) those which are illogical but 'correct';
(3) exceptions to (2);
(4) those which are logical but 'incorrect' (of which, as we will see, a small subset may be right after all).

So it's not surprising things get confusing.

IMO Joe's original usage of people's is correct, but Judd's would be correct in a different context. People can indeed be used as a collective noun, for which peoples is the plural form and peoples'[]i] the possessive plural. I can't think of an example right now, but I'm sure they're around - something to do with international relations maybe. In the much smaller case of ASF, people is the plural of person (persons sets my teeth on edge) and people's is the possessive plural.

I can't resist posting in full my favourite article from "Modern Australian Usage", especially as it's relevant to this thread:

pedant, purist Both of these words mean a person who comments on linguistic niceties which others find boring. The difference is that you are a pedant, whereas I am a purist. This is because my standards arise from my direct understanding of the eternal truths, whereas yours stem from memory of some fusty old schoolmarm who taught you parsing.

You have been warned!!!

Ghoti

 

[ghotib]

Lose and loose is THE word I see spelt D) wrong in forums most.

Me too. It used to drive me nuts, but then I started to realise that they're both exceptional spellings.

If you don't happen to know, why wouldn't you pronounce loose[/] the same way you pronounce choose and lose to rhyme with hose? Or, for that matter, with a soft 's' at the end like dose (unless you're Scottish and pronounce dose like
doze)?

I still notice them, especially the use of loose for [lose, but I don't get so annoyed because I can see how people might derive the wrong spelling.

Ghoti

 

[Wysiwyg]

Me too. It used to drive me nuts, but then I started to realise that they're both exceptional spellings.

If you don't happen to know, why wouldn't you pronounce loose[/] the same way you pronounce choose and lose to rhyme with hose? Or, for that matter, with a soft 's' at the end like dose (unless you're Scottish and pronounce dose like
doze)?

I still notice them, especially the use of loose for [lose, but I don't get so annoyed because I can see how people might derive the wrong spelling.

Ghoti

Well I think people spell lose loose and loose lose because they see others do it.(or to annoy on purpose)There is an obvious difference between win and lose or tight and loose.:

 

[2020hindsight]

I found this on a website ( dictionary in fact ) - is it the only correct way to say this ....

Hobson's Choice is somewhat different from a Catch-22 situation, ....

question:- is it ok to say "Hobson's Choice is somewhat different to a Catch-22 situation"?

PS in my mind, it's the bludy same, people understand either, but sometimes some fussy people pretend they don't understand neither, but then some people REALLY don't understand nuffing , and the bloke down the road, he doesn't understand it either, or his sister neither, nor his mother either.

and it's no different with all the other things that I used to fail English for at school

 

[Wysiwyg]

and it's no different with all the other things that I used to fail English for at school

Your math seems to be a success.Numbers or words?Have a look on any piece ( i before e except after c) of paper and they are there.

similar to?


different from?

Oh , and what is pi to 23000 decimal places again????

 

[Mazrox]

There's a great book out there called "Eats Shoots and Leaves" (or is that "Eats, Shoots and Leaves?") on punctuation. That comma thingy can sure make a big difference to how you read and understand a sentence!

I get frustrated with the education system too. My son is at a private high school and nearly every assignment they have given him this year has had a couple of grammatical errors and/or spelling errors - even to the point that it was difficult to work out what they actually wanted him to do at times!

I have a Primary School teacher mate who still corrects spelling - most don't these days. And the teachers coming through now in their 20s (or is that
20's?) are having trouble coming to grips with teaching grammar, because it just wasn't taught at all for about 15 years, and they missed out.

I agree that texting etc has made a difference to communication - although my older kids' spelling, grammar and writing generally (more than one kid! ) have improved markedly since leaving school and working in the real world...

So there is hope!

Maz

 

[2020hindsight]

similar to?
different from?
Oh , and what is pi to 23000 decimal places again????

you and that bludy idiot - what's his name ? savant? or something ? https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=190250&highlight=savant#post190250

Here are some questions (I guess- of sorts), and my guess at the right answer:-
Imagine Noah talking to his crew ( missus and inlaws) , and you have to understand this is hypothetical so there MIGHT be just one sheep for example:-

A. Neither the sheep nor the cows were fed last night (right)
B. Neither the sheep nor the cow was fed last night (right)

C. Neither the cows nor the sheep were fed last night (right, if 2 sheeps)
D. Neither the cows nor the sheep was fed last night (right , if 1 sheep)

ok - parse / correct / whatever this one - hypothetical - there are three toilets on board - the one used by the men on board, the one used by the ladies on board, and the one used by the animals. And a storm washes one overboard . Noah's wife is trying to tell Noah she saw what happened :-

E. Either the womens or the animals was washed overboard.
F. Either the womens or the animals were washed overboard.
G. Either the women's or the animals' was washed overboard.
maybe :-
H. Either the wom'en's' or the animal's" were washed overboard. ?

(heck if we've got time to sort out a sentence like that, we've got to get a new interest lol - time to take up cards or gambling.

J. Then again cards - or gambling - is addictive
whereas
K. Gambling - or cards - are not addictive
L. But neither cards nor gambling is cheap
and /or
M. But neither gambling nor cards are cheap

?
(ps bound to be errors here)

 

[BIG BWACULL]

The fat cat sat on the mat
And that was that fot that fat cat
as it ate so much shat(****)
All it could do was sat(sit) on the mat
Carry on

 

[2020hindsight]

DIFFERENT ONE lol

Suppose there are four toilets on board :-
ok - parse / correct / whatever this one - hypothetical - there are FOUR toilets on board - the one used by the men on board, the one used by the ladies on board, and the ones used by the animals. And a storm washes an unknown number overboard . Noah's wife is trying to tell Noah she saw what happened :-

P. Either the womens or the animals was washed overboard.
Q. Either the womens or the animals were washed overboard.
R. Either the women's or the animals' was washed overboard.
maybe :-
S. Either the wom'en's' or the animal's" were washed overboard. ?

T. sorry both the missus and I am compulsively thinking like a square.
er whereas
U. the dog and the kids are unpredictable , always thinking outside the square. etc etc
(ahh shuddup)

PS see if there is any serious error or any mistakes made - and how many?
PSS see if there are any mistakes or a serious error made - and how many?

PS leaving out commas is not a mistake for this one
that goes for apostrophes too,
although , lol I personally have no idea how many - nor the apostrophe's correct usage (apostrophe"s correct usage?)

how do you say the following for instance....
the women's toilet
or
the animals' toilet
animal's toilet
animals' toilets
etc

why didn't they make it easy

ONE ANIMAL :- animal's toilet (or toilets)
TWO ANIMALS :- animal"s toilet(s)
FIVE ANIMALS :- animal'''''s toilet(s)
etc

either the exclamation mark or the apostrophes were used incorrectly
either the apostrophes or the exclamation mark was used incorrectly ?

etc etc ad nauseum lol

 

[explod]

The fat cat sat on the mat
And that was that fot that fat cat
as it ate so much shat(****)
All it could do was sat(sit) on the mat
Carry on

In postmodernity the paradynamic shift to philosophic............daaaaaaaaaaar spelling?????????????

 

[2020hindsight]

..... , and you have to understand this is hypothetical so there MIGHT be just one sheep for example:-

"I saw the sheep's splash after falling overboard"
a) how many and who fell overboard ?

"I saw the sheeps' splash after falling overboard"
b) how many and who fell overboard ?


(PS, since you ask me to compare my maths and english grades at school whatever -
tell you a story, Wys - I used to hate english - although I liked the English teacher, a novice girl first year outta teacher's college (teachers' college / whatever ) - she just couldn't make it interesting ....

then once - JUST ONCE - just for 5 minutes !! - our headmaster assisted her - took the class - to make english COME ALIVE !!
he quoted some poetry !!!
and ever since I've loved the stuff
(still almost failed english lol)

 

[macca]

Hi Number cruncher

Quote:

Once the Liberals get ousted and the education system gets fixed I think we may see improvement in about a decade


In view of the fact that all public schools in Australia are run by the State Labor governments who have strenuosly denied any attempt to standardise or test the performance of schools, I seriously doubt it will improve any time soon.