Grammar talk

Cornelius · Post by **Cornelius** » 2004-03-10 01:36am

pic's

That is less spelled incorrectly than it is just stupid short-hand methods. The toher stuff, however, is..well...kinda bad.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-03-10 06:16pm

Cornelius wrote:
pic's
That is less spelled incorrectly than it is just stupid short-hand methods. The toher stuff, however, is..well...kinda bad.

You don't need a comma there. Hence, it's bolded.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-03-10 06:17pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Cornelius wrote:
pic's
That is less spelled incorrectly than it is just stupid short-hand methods. The toher stuff, however, is..well...kinda bad.
You don't need a comma there. Hence, it's bolded.

Its an apostrophe.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-03-10 07:52pm

Rogue 9 wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Cornelius wrote: That is less spelled incorrectly than it is just stupid short-hand methods. The toher stuff, however, is..well...kinda bad.
You don't need a comma there. Hence, it's bolded.
Its an apostrophe.

Yes, yes it is. However, said apostrophe should be moved from his plural, "pics" and placed into your contraction, "it's."

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-03-10 09:11pm

Mad wrote:
Rogue 9 wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote: You don't need a comma there. Hence, it's bolded.
Its an apostrophe.
Yes, yes it is. However, said apostrophe should be moved from his plural, "pics" and placed into your contraction, "it's."

No, it shouldn't. "It's" is the possessive form. The contraction of "It is" is "Its."

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-03-10 10:01pm

Rogue 9 wrote:
Mad wrote:Yes, yes it is. However, said apostrophe should be moved from his plural, "pics" and placed into your contraction, "it's."
No, it shouldn't. "It's" is the possessive form. The contraction of "It is" is "Its."

You're trying to pull my leg, right?

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2004-03-10 11:08pm

Yeah, Rogue has it backwards there. It's is the contraction of "it is", while "its" is the possessive. Every now and then you get people who write (for no obvious reason) "its'", which doesn't actually exist.

Bad grammar still gives me the willies, but I've resigned myself to the idea that it's unavoidable among the great unwashed.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2004-03-10 11:12pm

While I can easily remember all the its/it's rules, I just prefer to call it a draw and think tits.

Just so I know, what does 'toher' mean?

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2004-03-10 11:18pm

I had assumed that it was a fatfinger -- "other" instead of "toher". But maybe I'm wrong....

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-03-11 12:08am

Blah. Despite my typing the wrong word, my point stands. The apostrophe should have been used the way it was in the sentence.

General Trelane (Retired) · Post by **General Trelane (Retired)** » 2004-03-11 09:04pm

Here the rule on using apostrophes in plurals.

If the word is an acronym and in the same case as the added 's', then an apostrophe is required. Otherwise no apostrophe.

Examples:
BOM = Bill of Materials
BOMs = Bills of Materials
bom's = bills of materials

But because pic is simply an abbreviation of picture, then no apostrophe is warranted, and it should have been pics.

And:
it's = it is
its = possessive form of it

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2004-03-12 08:15am

General Trelane (Retired) wrote:
And:
it's = it is
its = possessive form of it

I was taught that apostrophes were used in both. Might be a difference between English English and American English, though.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2004-03-12 08:21am

Crazy_Vasey wrote:I was taught that apostrophes were used in both. Might be a difference between English English and American English, though.

No offence but your teacher was probably high if he taught you that. On the other hand, he could have said something along the lines of "If in doubt, use the apostrophe, as it's a more common error to forget to put it in than it is to not." Essentially what my own year 12 english teacher told the class.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-03-12 09:20am

My college English textbook said that if if the reader doesn't learn anything at all from the course, please at least learn the difference between its and it's. The way to remember it is simple: if you can expand the word into two words -- it is -- then it is a contraction and should have the apostrophe. Otherwise it's possessive and should not have it.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-03-12 09:21am

Stofsk wrote: No offence but your teacher was probably high if he taught you that. On the other hand, he could have said something along the lines of "If in doubt, use the apostrophe, as it's a more common error to forget to put it in than it is to not." Essentially what my own year 12 english teacher told the class.

i have no clue how you could possibly be in doubt though. you can just try by turning it´s/its into it is. if it makes sence it´s it´s if it dosn´t it´s its.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2004-03-12 09:31am

salm wrote:i have no clue how you could possibly be in doubt though. you can just try by turning it´s/its into it is. if it makes sence it´s it´s if it dosn´t it´s its.

I probably should have mentioned I had a low opinion of my english teacher.

Then again if you met the sort of idiots who were in my class you might understand. What you said should have been obvious to anyone, really - not just my teacher. I can't complain though - english was my best class, and also one of the most boring (although it was better than photography - I don't know why I chose that subject...).

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2004-03-12 02:30pm

Stofsk wrote:
Crazy_Vasey wrote:I was taught that apostrophes were used in both. Might be a difference between English English and American English, though.
No offence but your teacher was probably high if he taught you that. On the other hand, he could have said something along the lines of "If in doubt, use the apostrophe, as it's a more common error to forget to put it in than it is to not." Essentially what my own year 12 english teacher told the class.

Remembering the teacher I had at sixth form, it wouldn't surprise me. He did look like the stereotypical stoner who'd forced himself into a suit and he gulped back coffee like an alchoholic takes his booze. There's a thought. Wonder what was in that coffee.

I just looked it up, and you're right. I've been making that bloody mistake for years now. Dammit. I suppose doing computer science, were most students seem semi-literate at best most of the time, it was allowed to pass.

General Trelane (Retired) · Post by **General Trelane (Retired)** » 2004-03-12 03:21pm

Ahh, yes. English class--where grammar and style take a back seat to "creativity."

Technical writing is part of my day-to-day job function, so I keep my old Practical Guide to Writing textbook nearby. There are also a number of good websites on style. But if I hear one more co-worker pull the I-got-a-nine-in English-class argument, I just might have to get respected style manual (like Chicago).

While the rules for apostrophes are actually pretty hard and fast, many other style issues are not (e.g. hyphenating compound adjectives). That's the hazard of an evolving language, I guess. But from an engineering perspective, consistent rules would be nice. . .

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2004-03-12 04:03pm

Rogue 9 wrote:No, it shouldn't. "It's" is the possessive form. The contraction of "It is" is "Its."

Your claim to being a grammar Nazi has officially been nullified.