Deliberate mistakes

How often does one have to take Ex Lax to be regular? Enquiring minds want to know.

Ah, poor colonials. Here in the mother country the form James' is perfectly acceptable, even if we more often say say "jameses".

N.

Ok, if the English language is so good , can someone explain why it is (its it's) you choose, mice instead of mouses or sheep(singular) and sheep(plural)

Confused of Scotland

Not easily but if you are interested in this kind of thing, listen in on this program on Radio 4. A lot of these irregular verbs and strange plurals have their roots in centuries past. This week's was fairly close to the subject being discussed.

Dod, it is that way because that is how we (the English) say it should be. It's our language and we can make the rules as it suits us. So there!

Whatever do you mean its you language, it's a mess of French, Greek, Latin, Indian and anything else that suits thrown in, strewth there is even 'Strilian in it, probably nae ony Doric amang at sotter

Not in the case of Court of St James's, in written language. Check your stylebook Mr Editor.

So why it is we say " a friend of mine, a friend of yours, a friend of Fred's, a mate of the dog's" but not "a hair of the dog's"? And why the double possessive at all (ie both "of" and 's) We colonials look to you guys for guidance on this stuff, y'know..

That would be all right if you stuck to the rules!

.

Simply because that expression is a short form of "the hair of the dog that bit me"

... [or whomsoever]

MichaelG.

And don't get onto the subject of English English and America English as we will here for the next month!

A famous person once said "America and England, two nations separated by an ocean and a common language".

Have you heard about the argument during the Second World War in an allied planning meeting in America? Seems the British delegates wanted to "table a motion" on some aspect of the talks. The Americans were vehemently against this, which surprised the British as they believed the USA was in favour of the idea. It went on for some time until the Canadian delegate pointed out that to "table a motion" in English speak was to propose an idea, but in American speak it meant to withdraw the idea.

It appears that the 'bubble' has burst.

Andrew

Go to the top of the class. As long as it is not that class of Fred's. Or you might end up in a court of law, such as the Court of St James's.

Guardsian Style Guide:

The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones’s, James’s), but be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps: Mephistopheles’, Waters’, Hedges’ rather than Mephistopheles’s, Waters’s, Hedges’s.

The problem is that pronunciation may be a guide, but it isn't consistent because there are no rules on how you say it...

For example, it's St Thomas's Church but St Thomas' Hospital. Go figure as the yanks say!

Neil

<EDIT> LOL! I mis-spelled Grauniad, how apt!

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 15/05/2016 15:09:23

That makes sense.... it is his church (or at least his boss) but the hospital is named after him?

Mark

Is it made of Aluminum?

OK. I've got to have my say. According to me apostrophes are used to indicate omitted words or letters.

So if I wanted to write Martin his lathe which is correct but clumsy I could write Martin's lathe which is more normal and closer to what is actually pronounced. So with St James' Park that would be St James his Park. You could write James's but that would be silly as you already have enough to tell you how to pronounce it.

So Mike Checkley his Arbors becomes Mike Checkley's Arbors with the apostrophe indicating the missing hi. Nothing to do with plurality of Mike or arbors in this case.

regards Martin

.

No offence intended, Martin ... but I think that's the problem. ^^^

Apostrophes have two uses [1] as you suggest, and [2] to indicate possession.

The use is 'prioritised' ... which is where it gets interesting.

MichaelG.

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Edit: here is a reasonably concise summary.

... and another.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 16/05/2016 09:58:58

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 16/05/2016 10:04:29

They really don't . They only indicate missing characters. It's the his that creates the possession.

Martin

I was taught-- "when in doubt ,leave it out ", this in regard to the apostrophe .Works well for me.