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Pedants' corner

Grammar

(102 Posts)
Didsbury Thu 27-Aug-20 22:51:47

When you see a sign, which is grammatically incorrect, which ones irritate you the most

Seeing apostrophes in plurals.
I was in an office one day and saw a poster which told us what happened on each day of the week
It had apostrophes in plurals
Monday's Tuesday's and son on
I had to sit down with a glass of water and recover.

The one that gets me when I am in Morrisons's
10 items or less - it should be 10 items or fewer

Generally, the rule is if the noun is countable or uncountable

geekesse Mon 31-Aug-20 15:38:11

Rufus2, you said ‘My spell/grammar checker supports me: by red -lining . "Jameses"’.

Never rely on MS spelling and grammar checks. Bill Gates is famous for writing computer code, not accurate British English!

Rufus2 Tue 01-Sept-20 13:23:40

Bill Gates is famous for writing computer code, not accurate British English!
Geekesse MS now has an army of code writers on its payroll, but they still don't like "Jameses"!
What's "accurate" anyway, given the proliferation of dialects and languages?
Here in OZ we have a hybrid of the best of US and OZ whereby "humor" versus "humour" and the preference for "Z" (Zee!) over "S" can be overlooked!

Oopsminty Hope you've got only one Nemesis, otherwise "Nemesises", apart from being a tongue-twister would pose a problem as to where to stick apostrophes! grin OoRoo

grandtanteJE65 Tue 01-Sept-20 13:54:02

Sorry, Rufus, I beg to disagree. James' does not imply that there are more than one person called James referred to.

The apostrophe after the s in a singular is simply the exception that proves the rule.

boodymum67 Tue 01-Sept-20 14:03:17

Charleygirl5

If you read my local Nextdoor online one would be hard pushed to know if eg the person was a cleaner or wanted one the grammar was so dreadful.

Your grammar has some mistakes.
No punctuation where it should be. No full stops.

Marydoll Tue 01-Sept-20 23:27:32

Correcting another poster's grammar is neither acceptable nor kind, boodymum67. ☹️
I wouldn't dream of pointing out another poster's perceived errors.
You know nothing about Charleygirl nor her circumstances. She could be dyslexic or perhaps, partially sighted. Who knows?

MaizieD Sat 05-Sept-20 08:03:43

It does seem a bit odd, Marydoll, to be complaining ungrammatically about other people's bad grammar.

Particularly in 'Pedant's Corner' (which is, itself, a questionably grammatical title).

Furret Sat 05-Sept-20 08:10:26

It is not always incorrect to use apostrophes as you mention in the OP. Depends on the context eg

Monday's Child
Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

Marydoll Sat 05-Sept-20 08:43:13

In the OP, however, the use of apostrophes is incorrect, because Mondays is a plural noun in this context. eg. On Mondays we have a staff meeting.

Grannynannywanny Sat 05-Sept-20 08:45:37

?

Marydoll Sat 05-Sept-20 08:48:24

That really appeals to me!?

sodapop Sat 05-Sept-20 08:51:26

grin love it Grannynannywanny

Urmstongran Sat 05-Sept-20 08:53:49

?

Furret Sat 05-Sept-20 09:00:10

Marydoll

In the OP, however, the use of apostrophes is incorrect, because Mondays is a plural noun in this context. eg. ^On Mondays we have a staff meeting.^

Does it say that in the OP?

Furret Sat 05-Sept-20 09:00:59

Monday’s staff meeting has been cancelled.

MellowYellow Sat 05-Sept-20 09:04:06

I used to be a proofreader for a printing company. I can't describe the agony, for me, of misplaced apostrophes etc etc etc. shock (But I love 'Arrive me' Nortsat! gringrin)

Charleygirl5 Sat 05-Sept-20 09:20:09

boodymum and MaisieD thank you so much for pointing out my grammatical mistakes in such a kindly and straightforward manner.

Totally my fault, I was distracted here and did not re-read it. I am also partially sighted but that is not an excuse.

Perhaps in future give some thought to people's inner feelings? You do not know my circumstances. Mistakes are easily made.

winterwhite Sat 05-Sept-20 09:53:38

I was taught to write as one would pronounce with names ending in ‘s’ - as in That is James’s book.
I think I was also taught that when the number is a unit Less than is correct - as in Fewer than 50 cars, but A dozen cars or less.
Maybe it’s position in the sentence. ‘Less than’ certainly jars in Less than 50 cars, But does fewer in A dozen cars or fewer.
Can anyone enlarge on this?

Marydoll Sat 05-Sept-20 10:03:37

On Mondays we do.....

Furret, the point I was trying to make is that it's really not very kind to point out an individual's grammatical errors on a public forum.

I have a Master's degree in English language and literature, so grammatical errors could really irritate me. They don't! There are more important things happening in the world to stress about at the moment.
This constant pulling of of posters on GN recently is becoming quite depressing.☹️

Urmstongran Sat 05-Sept-20 10:09:25

Hear hear Marydoll. I’d rather just read what someone posts and enjoy the interaction than pick it to pieces. What right has anyone? We don’t know the personal circumstances of anyone on here and shouldn’t be so snooty!

I see loads of grammatical errors and probably make a fair few myself. So what?

Marydoll Sat 05-Sept-20 10:09:57

We have a local school, named St Thomas. Official communications referred to St Thomas' staff.
I was always taught that St James ' was correct and St James's was incorrect.

Sarnia Sat 05-Sept-20 10:17:05

The one that gets me is muddling up draw and drawer. My boss labelled her filing cabinet, writing 'draw' on each sticky label. My fingers itched to add 'er' to each one but I needed the job!

jeanrobinson Sat 05-Sept-20 11:50:31

Does anyone nowadays know how to use the word 'whom?'
It has virtually disappeared.

MaizieD Sat 05-Sept-20 12:13:32

MaizieD

It does seem a bit odd, Marydoll, to be complaining ungrammatically about other people's bad grammar.

Particularly in 'Pedant's Corner' (which is, itself, a questionably grammatical title).

Something very odd going on here.

When I wrote this post on my tablet earlier this morning the forum was most definitely named 'Pedant's Corner'. I know it was because I deliberately altered what I had written from 'Pedants' Corner' to 'Pedant's Corner' so that it would correspond exactly with the forum title. I checked and rechecked...

Now I've come back to it the apostrophe is in the correct place. shock

What happened?

MaizieD Sat 05-Sept-20 12:16:59

I'm really sorry, Charleygirl, but this is a forum for pedants.

I agree that it is rude to do it on any of the other forums.

rockgran Sat 05-Sept-20 12:22:17

Off your own 'back' instead of bat - gets me every time.