h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is not really a comment on this article, but on the front page blurb for the article. I would have put this comment in the feedback section, only posts there languish for a long time before answering. Anyhow...

"Also, any discussion of cartoons illicts a huge surge of nostalgia..."

The word you were looking for, dear editors and front-page composers, is "elicits".

Is it too much to ask that TDV actually hire someone who knows the English language on a college level with actual copyediting experience to prevent such stupid mistakes from continually happening? It's getting to be a rare day that I don't find such mistakes in approved entries, but getting one on the front page is a new low.

Signed,

The Curmudgeon of Endicott

PS -- Darned good entry, though. A nice example of what can be done when the Guide's researchers work together, and proof that we can accomplish something other than sheer fluff here.

Fluff? What kind of Fluff? Do write back, as it may be JUST the Fluff I've been looking for...

To err is human. Thanks for the correction, but yesterday was a particularly busy day here at h2g2, and errors slip through. Our apologies...

Still, it's wonderful to receive postings in the style of 'annoyed from Aylesbury'. I didn't realise people actually wrote that way in real life.

Thanks.

Well, thanks for the quick response. You're getting faster, which is good. Apologies gladly accepted.

And I get the "annoyed in Aylesbury" reference, though I wonder how many other Yanks do?

Whether this is real life is another question...

To totally mess things up, you need a computer.

"done when the Guide's researchers work together,"

I was always taught, when using the apostrophe (as in your post) that to indicate a noun denoting a collective group or to indicate 'is part of' the apostrophe follows the s as in - Guides' -

However,

when using it in place of is, you would use - Guide's -.

This would mean that your sentence reads "done when the guide is researchers works together" rather than (as I believe you meant) "the researchers of the guide work together"

Yours in an anally retentive spirt

Taipan.

This is, probably, a good example of this Law http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=23739&thread=22534


;^)#

Chicago Manual of Style, rule 6.12: "The possessive case of singular nouns is formed by the addition of an apostrophe and an s, and the possessive of plural nouns (except for a few irregular plurals) by the addition of an apostrophe only."

In the phrase you quote, "done when the Guide's researchers work together", "Guide" is a singular noun, referring to the one-and-only H2G2. It is not a collective noun. If I were referring to the researchers as Guides, then the phrase would properly have been "done when the Guides work together".

Signed,
Never get in a pissing match with a skunk

Maybe that's true in the chicago style, but over here - where english originated - that's all just more amerciababble.

referring to the researchers as Guides, then the phrase would properly have been "done when the Guides work together".

Would that not actually have been 'done when the guides work together' without the capital g?

If not, then why do you not have a capital r in researchers?

He's right, you're left, I'm gone.
Thangyewverrrymuch.
- TWF

Actually, it's not just Ameribabble. See, for example, the alt.usage.english FAQ (which is based on British English) at http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/archive/alt-usage-english-faq.html :

1. The standard rule: Use 's for the singular possessive, and a
bare apostrophe after the plural suffix -s or -es for the plural
possessive. For example:

Singular Plural
Nominative dog dogs
Possessive dog's dogs'

"Guide" is and remains a singular noun, although there are many researchers working for the guide.

If you can provide me with a citation for a different British usage, I'd be interested. Otherwise, I shall presume you are being either cute or thick.

As to capitalising "Guides" but not "researchers", I took "Guides" in that use to be a proper noun, and therefore one which ought to be capitalised. "Researchers" was clearly a simple noun, not the name of something. I could go either way on this one, though.

Don't know about cute, wouldn't consider myself especially thick. I think you made a mistake with that sentence based on my experience is all, and as you posted on the use of english in the guide in a defamotory tone, I thought it would be nice to point out it depends on both your own experience, preference, whatever.

Btw : I define cute as 'nice to look at', but I would say I was being facetious if that's what you meant.

Man, you guys have a lot of time on your hands!

BTW, 'cute' has its origin in the word 'acute', meaning sharp-witted!

Whilst my grammar is, and always was, awful - I feel I must object to "english".
Surely we capitalise "English"? If not then I wish the name to be changed - how about the common language?

Thanx Dunx. Stalking you has led me to my spiritual home.I have a Frank & Ernest cartoon pasted on my filing cabinet where a small brat is asking her language teacher,"If you don't mind my asking, about how much does a sentence diagrammer pull down a year?"
SpAs I spend all this time on h2g2 surrounded by high-paid computer whizzes, their typos and ungrammatical postings give me a chance to assert my natural superiority.

And I swear that "Sp" wasn't there when I previewed that message