I didn't know tennis had doctrines. Rules, yes, but doctrines?
Note from a cranky editor
- Thread starter Greg Cox
- Start date
wew said:
I know, but thanks for the clarification. I almost never see breach where it should be breech - it's almost always the other way around, maybe because people quote or sort-of quote Shakespeare more often than they talk about artillery?
Which reminds me of another common annoyance: Calvary vs. cavalry.
Don't know, but he is a Tennant.
Well, when are you going to implement my word filter idea?
Filtering "rediculous" to read NOTE: I AM TOO INCOMPETENT TO SPELL THIS WORD PROPERLY would fix people pretty quickly.
Unlike other examples, this mistake at least makes sense: the free reign of a sovereign doing what he/she wishes, which can convey the same meaning as the horse analogy.
I hate to appear bias but I've always hated the omnipresent loose for lose.
^ yeah, I know what I did up there
^ yeah, I know what I did up there
Here's a grammar problem that bugs me:
"As a loyal fan, that episode offended me." Technically, you're saying that the episode is a loyal fan. The initial phrase modifies the subject of the sentence. So it should be "As a loyal fan, I was offended by that episode." Or "I'm a loyal fan, and that episode offended me." Although this one's common enough that maybe it's being too much of a grammar pedant to object to it.
"As a loyal fan, that episode offended me." Technically, you're saying that the episode is a loyal fan. The initial phrase modifies the subject of the sentence. So it should be "As a loyal fan, I was offended by that episode." Or "I'm a loyal fan, and that episode offended me." Although this one's common enough that maybe it's being too much of a grammar pedant to object to it.
apostrophe-s is possessive (or a contraction): "Trekker's posts." Not, repeat, NOT plural.
It's not Trekkers post's.
It's not Trekkers post's.
However, possessive pronouns do not contain apostrophes, while all contractions do; so "it's" is a contraction and "its" is a possessive.
Possessive pronouns with an apostrophe I can wave over. It's improper, but forgivable.
Making a word plural by using an apostrophe? Good-GOD where did people learn to do that?!
Probably it started with the tendency to add apostrophes to plurals that would seem awkward or ambiguous otherwise -- like, say, "straight A's" instead of "straight As." Which then got extended to numbers like "the 90's" for the decade (a slight distortion of what it should be, "the '90s"). Which then got extended by analogy to numbers in general ("highs in the low 90's"), and then to plurals in general. So like so many things in language, it started out as a justified bending of the rules for clarity's sake and just slid down the slippery slope from there.
The former English teacher in me approves of this thread.
As part of my grammar unit, I taught possessives. There are so many rules concerning them that it can easily cause confusion to escalate, especially when you throw words in there that end with a "S", pluralize them, and then make them possessive. Very easy to screw up if you are not careful.
I usually started my semester off with writing the following on the white board:
its - possessive.
it's - it is
its' - DOESN'T EXIST
On another matter completely, I am somewhat bothered that "irregardless" has apparently been accepted as a word.
As part of my grammar unit, I taught possessives. There are so many rules concerning them that it can easily cause confusion to escalate, especially when you throw words in there that end with a "S", pluralize them, and then make them possessive. Very easy to screw up if you are not careful.
I usually started my semester off with writing the following on the white board:
its - possessive.
it's - it is
its' - DOESN'T EXIST
On another matter completely, I am somewhat bothered that "irregardless" has apparently been accepted as a word.
Yes it does. It's a stylistic choice, not a hard and fast rule. I'm always fully aware that I'm not adding an 's' when writing things like: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It just looks too weird to me to have the extra letter there.
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