Apostrophe S

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

I'd start it with "Although the economy has been...et cetera.

Bingko.:biggrin1:

 

[ManlyBanisters]

The second clause takes one off in a new direction. This fact is obvious enough on a reasonably close reading, but the conjunction sends the reader off on that new direction.

"The economy has been sluggish for four years now; some signs of improvement are finally beginning to show,"

is, in my mind (others may differ), much less clear than:

"The economy has been sluggish for four years now, but some signs of improvement are finally beginning to show."

I'd agree with you if you were to ditch the 'finally' - with 'finally' in there qualifying the timeline of the 'signs of imporvement' both version make sense to me. These things can vary from place to place and speaker to speaker.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

I'd agree with you if you were to ditch the 'finally' - with 'finally' in there qualifying the timeline of the 'signs of imporvement' both versions make sense to me. These things can vary from place to place and speaker to speaker.

Personally, I think the 'finally' only provides a bit more clarity.
The conjunction helps; it is not, however, imperative.
(Heh heh ... lil' semicolon slippin' in ... hope I get points.)

 

[ManlyBanisters]

Personally, I think the 'finally' only provides a bit more clarity.
The conjunction helps; it is not, however, imperative.
(Heh heh ... lil' semicolon slippin' in ... hope I get points.)

Last time I had a good excuse for not proof reading a post to this thread, this time not so... fuck it an' anyway...

 

[arthurdent]

Nitpick: 's forms the plural of single letters, numerals, and acronyms when s alone is ambiguous. For example, the sentence

As are used three times in the word banana.

is hard for a reader to parse correctly the first time, because the first word looks like "as". When written as

A's are used three times in the word banana.

the meaning is immediately understood. The sentence:

You can't finish making this sign without us.

is easy for a reader to parse correctly the first time, but no reader is likely to understand it as meaning

You can't finish making this sign without u's.

unless the apostrophe is used to indicate that the last word is a plural instead of a pronoun. At this point, I'll omit the joke about all the bs on my college transcript.

I've only just started reading this thread, so harking back to the above post, I think I would have used "A"s to denote more than one letter A. This could still be used by anyone taking dictation.

 

[HazelGod]

"The economy has been sluggish for four years now; some signs of improvement are finally beginning to show,"

is, in my mind (others may differ), much less clear than:

"The economy has been sluggish for four years now, but some signs of improvement are finally beginning to show."

My quibble with both constructions is the unnecessary use of the split infinitive.

 

[marleyisalegend]

I don't think so - but when I was a kid I used to remember it by thinking about the other possessive pronouns - my, yours, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs - none of those have an apostrophe, so why would its?

Thats so crazy it just might work? Thank's!!

 

[DC_DEEP]

My quibble with both constructions is the unnecessary use of the split infinitive.

In what you quoted, neither had a split infinitive.

In order to actually have a split infinitive, the word "to" would be split from it's [sic] unconjugated, infinitive verb.

Love ya, Madamoiselle Piggy!

 

[ManlyBanisters]

In what you quoted, neither had a split infinitive.

In order to actually have a split infinitive, the word "to" would be split from it's [sic] unconjugated, infinitive verb.

Love ya, Madamoiselle Piggy!

Damn you! I wanted to gleefully pick the fucker up on that one!

Oink! Squeeeeeel! Oink! You're hurting my head!!

 

[TurkeyWithaSunburn]

:You_Rock_Emoticon:If I ever go to college every damned one of you grammarians are proof reading every sentence I write for a paper.:joke:


I'll await my :smashfreakB: over yonder's.:bowdown:

 

[HazelGod]

In what you quoted, neither had a split infinitive.

In order to actually have a split infinitive, the word "to" would be split from it's [sic] unconjugated, infinitive verb.

Love ya, Madamoiselle Piggy!

Quite right...it's not the infinitive that was split, but I couldn't think of the right term. It's actually the present participle (are beginning) portion of the adverbial phrase that is split in a manner that I take issue with.

@ MB: :tongue:

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Damn you! I wanted to gleefully pick the fucker up on that one!

Yeah.
So delectably close ... and yet so far.

It's actually the present participle (are beginning) portion of the adverbial phrase that is split in a manner that I take issue with.

Holy shit.
Anal much?
That's even more picky than complaining about a split infinitive. :smashfreakB:

 

[Viking_UK]

No - that would still be wrong, a comma would be correct. "The economy has been sluggish for four years now, some signs of improvement are finally beginning to show."

I don't mean to be picky (well, I do), but that's a comma splice. A semi-colon would be OK there, but not a comma.

 

[Principessa]

[quote=x704;1568823]:You_Rock_Emoticon:If I ever go to college every damned one of you grammarians are proof reading every sentence I write for a paper.:joke:
I'll await my :smashfreakB: over yonder's.:bowdown:[/quote]

Heck I went to college, a few times. :biggrin1: Now, I'm afraid to post a response, for fear of being beat up by the LPSG Punctuation Police. :redface:

 

[midlifebear]

In what you quoted, neither had a split infinitive.

In order to actually have a split infinitive, the word "to" would be split from it's [sic] unconjugated, infinitive verb.

Love ya, Madamoiselle Piggy!

I usually do not argue with the dated dictum against splitting the infinitive. However, boldness is commendable when one has to be split. :fing26:

Oh, and I believe the AP Style Book insists upon: The nifty 50's, sexy 60's, selfish 70's, evil 80's and the naughty 90's.

 

[ManlyBanisters]

I don't mean to be picky (well, I do), but that's a comma splice. A semi-colon would be OK there, but not a comma.

If you read through the thread you will see that correction has been covered already - thanks.

 

[DC_DEEP]

Quite right...it's not the infinitive that was split, but I couldn't think of the right term. It's actually the present participle (are beginning) portion of the adverbial phrase that is split in a manner that I take issue with.

:biggrin1HG... Alright, I'm not going to keep beating you. ManlyBanisters, I'll save this one for you!

Love ya, Hazel, I know it's just because I got ya flustered, and you were thinking about the untimely split of the auxilliary and the participle in that present progressive construction.

 

[Catchoftheday]

Heck I went to college, a few times. :biggrin1: Now, I'm afraid to post a response, for fear of being beat up by the LPSG Punctuation Police. :redface:[/quote]

You know what they say if you can't beat 'em .....fuck 'em

 

[Viking_UK]

If you read through the thread you will see that correction has been covered already - thanks.

Sorry about that. I was in too much of a hurry earlier. Am I forgiven?

 

[Viking_UK]

I usually do not argue with the dated dictum against splitting the infinitive. However, boldness is commendable when one has to be split. :fing26:

Oh, and I believe the AP Style Book insists upon: The nifty 50's, sexy 60's, selfish 70's, evil 80's and the naughty 90's.

That should really be '50s, '60s etc as it's a contraction of 1950s 1960s. I made that mistake in my first week at work years back and haven't forgotten the roasting I got as a result since.