MEW 332

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Tony Jeffree on 19/09/2023 10:42:04:

…and remember, any noun can be verbed…

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.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

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

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

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

[simondavies3Participant @simondavies3]

And maybe something radiicalus?

Neil

That sounds horribilis…

[egaParticipant @ega]

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?

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

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

Mike

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

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.

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by Bazyle on 19/09/2023 15:25:58:

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…

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by JasonB on 17/09/2023 06:59:36:

But on the other hand lets encourage people to send in articles otherwise you won't have content to complain about

Well actually you will as there will be moans about Neil using old articles to bulk out the content.

I'm happy with either and know what is meant, maybe it's because I'm a bit common and never went to a posh school where Latin was a subject

…

Edited By JasonB on 17/09/2023 07:29:41

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.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Bazyle on 19/09/2023 15:25:58:

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.

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

[Peter GreeneParticipant @petergreene36336]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 19/09/2023 10:38:38:

Apparently some Americans are offended by Britishisms catching on in the US.

 

 

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

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by Mike Poole on 19/09/2023 14:40:28:

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

Mike

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

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Bazyle on 19/09/2023 15:25:58:

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.

James' Cafê

Although not everyone approves of that usage.

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 19/09/2023 21:53:52:

 

Cafê

 

.

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

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

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

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 19/09/2023 21:53:52:

Posted by Bazyle on 19/09/2023 15:25:58:

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.

James' Cafê

Although not everyone approves of that usage.

 

Neil

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

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

Edited By Tony Jeffree on 20/09/2023 08:28:58

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

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

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

I live in a house called Badgers Sett. Or should that be Badger's or Badgers'? Depending, I suppose, on whether Brock lived there as a bachelor or with his family? So when I came to make a house nameplate for the bottom of the drive, I went back to the earliest document I have relating to a previous property transfer, a legal document from around the 1950s. I found all three spellings in the same document. So I left out the apostrophe to match an existing sign on the house itself. This also matches the official Royal Mail listing for it – whether right or wrong…

Still, if it had to be one of the other, I would rather be burgled than burglarized!

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Tony Jeffree on 20/09/2023 08:28:19:

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

Joneses in that phrase is a plural, not possessive.

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

I live on Offa's Road – but the NHS and various other official departments omit the apostrophe. Not what one expects from a government manned by the products of our public schools.

Of course, e-bay misses the apostrophe too, as you might expect.

Cheers, Tim

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by Nick Wheeler on 20/09/2023 10:13:57:

Posted by Tony Jeffree on 20/09/2023 08:28:19:

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

Joneses in that phrase is a plural, not possessive.

True enough, but that doesn't stop it being a perfectly good name for the cafe that avoids the apostrophe debate, which was the point

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Tony Jeffree on 19/09/2023 10:29:22:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 17/09/2023 10:41:48:

Posted by Mark Rand on 16/09/2023 23:14:09:

I would like to humbly point out that the plural of radius is radii…

Let me put a spoke in the wheel!

As Archimedes was Greek, and didn't speak Latin, it's obvious the right word must be Ακτίνες. Pity I can't pronounce it.

Dave

Its all Greek to me…

Ah yes, from Bill Waggledagger's Julius Cæsar, Act 1, Scene 2 .

Or "omnia mihi græca sunt" as my Latin teacher put it.

George

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by Nealeb on 20/09/2023 10:10:01:

I live in a house called Badgers Sett. Or should that be Badger's or Badgers'?……..

So is Nealeb a badger?

The best example of municiple illiteracy near me is STANNES CLOSE. Presumably it should be St. Anne's Close, but it might be named after someone called Stannes. I'm so tempted to get out the stick on punctuation kit.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

While we are on the subject of spelling, grammar and the origins of words.

This site accepts catalog but not catalogue.

It likes center but not centre.

While I know I make mistakes with my spelling, all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order. This does little to ease my frustration at getting the words wrong. Especially when the computer does not recognise / recognize, (there's another), the right spelling.

Funnily enough it will accept color and colour, gage it won't, but gauge it will.

I had thought we are on American spelling and not English, but the last example above blows that out of the water. Yet with all the in depth discussions above, I have not seen anyone else point this out during the post.

Moderators please, for my sanity can you sort this one out.

Regards

Gray,

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Graham Meek on 22/09/2023 10:35:26:

While we are on the subject of spelling, grammar and the origins of words.

This site accepts catalog but not catalogue.

It likes center but not centre.

While I know I make mistakes with my spelling, all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order. This does little to ease my frustration at getting the words wrong. Especially when the computer does not recognise / recognize, (there's another), the right spelling.

Funnily enough it will accept color and colour, gage it won't, but gauge it will.

I had thought we are on American spelling and not English, but the last example above blows that out of the water. Yet with all the in depth discussions above, I have not seen anyone else point this out during the post.

Moderators please, for my sanity can you sort this one out.

Regards

Gray,

The forum's proprietary spell-checker is one of it's endearing features, and can't be fixed. Dates to the early Internet before Browsers could do spell-checking, and has more than it's fair share of flaws. Defaulting to US English on a British website is just its first eccentricity.

Everyone in the know leaves the forum spell-checker switched off! Instead, Browser spell-checker plug-ins do a much better job, and they work on all websites. How they are installed depends on the browser. I have Firefox with the 'British English Dictionary (Marco Pinto)' extension installed from 'Settings'.

Pretty sure new forum doesn't have a built-in spell-checker – modern software expects the browser to do it. Firefox will spell-check in New Zealand or Canadian English if that's my wish.

Dave

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the info, but thus far I have been unable to dis-arm the spell checker. I will just have to wait until the changeover.

Regards

Gray,

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