MEW 332

Its all Greek to me...

Sortation isn't quite the same as 'sort', at least in the technical sense. It means a mechanised sort process or processes. I don't know if the word hales from the US or not but appending .ation to verbs is common in British English. Visit and visitation etc.

Engineers can't complain about others abusing the English language. Turning, thread, mill, and lathe, were all jargon in their day. Lay folk often pinch technical terms too: I have a cast-iron case and will blow a gasket if anyone disagrees!

Apparently some Americans are offended by Britishisms catching on in the US. What a bunch of muppets!

Dave

...and remember, any noun can be verbed...

You learn something new every day, I had never heard of 'verbed' either!

What most of us find annoying is when there is a verb that already does that job. One that doesn't sound like it was made up by a drunk American middle-manager trying to sound clever.

I was more concerned about the amount of maths in 332... I decided to focus a bit on angles and related issues, but on re-reading it feels a bit too heavy on the one topic?

Different topics in the next issue, promise!

And maybe something radiicalus?

Neil

You can please some of the people etc. etc. And it’s er16 not 15,,

That sounds horribilis...

Posted by Mark Rand on 17/09/2023 12:15:00:...Don't get me started on the (lack of) quality of proof reading on the BBC's web sites and news scripts.

The BBC website is so speckled with schoolboy howlers that I think it must be staffed by juvenile semi-literates.

PS It is common ground that radii and radiuses are alternatives but using the former does at least distinguish it from the verbal form.

PPS How about, Boldly to Go?

The Telegraph journalists seem confused about the correct us of home and hone.

Mike

I know a bloke named James who has a cafe. Is it "James cafe" or "James's cafe" ?

The first sort of sounds better but I think the second is technically correct. This is a real issue at the moment as the " 's" is 18 inches high and someone has asked for it to be removed.

Easiest solution - rename it as Jim's Cafe...

Unfortunately posh English schools were configured to turn out military and civil officers to administer an empire that was disintegrating even 60 years ago. They made a point of propagating formal linguistic skills and avoiding any practical skills involving the manipulation of materials.

It took a lot of time and effort to reverse that with the autodidaction bit.

It could be James' or James's depending on what you would say. The apostrophe is necessary.

Way, way more the other way round it seems to me.

Like their awful use of "alternate" when they mean "alternative". It's already de-rigueur in Canada and soon will be in the UK.

(My - admitted old - copy of Webster's actually has them correctly defined).

Edited By Peter Greene on 19/09/2023 18:52:02

Are you thinking of "home/hone in on", by any chance, Mike?

James' Cafê

Although not everyone approves of that usage.

Neil

.

That looks suspiciously Spanish, Neil

MichaelG.

.

But getting back to the question …
 

James’ with the apostrophe but without  the second s would be my preference, but many believe that form should only be used with plurals, not with words that just happen to end with s 

Incidentally; here is a good precedent for using  James

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James_Infirmary_Blues

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 19/09/2023 22:17:59

In my youth I worked on Saturdays in Lewis's department store. I remember checking the possessive 's used like this and found out that if names ended in s this was considered to be correct.

Martin C

...or Jameses cafe (as in "keeping up with the Joneses" )

Edited By Tony Jeffree on 20/09/2023 08:28:40

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Edited By Tony Jeffree on 20/09/2023 08:29:15

Edited By Tony Jeffree on 20/09/2023 08:29:32