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

The one that's really been puzzling me in recent years is the tendency to apply an apostrophe to a plural formed with 's'. Now, confusion over possessives I can understand, but surely it's one of the simplest things in the world to make a plural by adding an 's' without bandying apostrophes about where they're not needed. Is there a finite amount of the things, perhaps, and this is why they're so often missing from abbreviations?

One thing has been puzzling me for the past week or so: when you say something like 'The dog chewed on XXX bone': do you spell the word its, it's or its' ?

The GCSE thing is symptomatic of a trend that'll emerge over the next few decades: learning facts is *hard*, so from now on we'll simply vote on them. Who was the first man to walk on the moon? A) Apollo Creed B)Louie Armstrong C) Neil Armstrong? Vote now!

Neither. Possesive its has no apostrophe at all. It's (not its') is used for it is.

Noggin

I thought so. I did actually put that down as an option. Thanks.

In that case, definitely Louis Armstrong

Spimcoot, I'm currently editing an entry on the use of the possessive - thanks for reminding me.

> "[the OED] consider whether a new word is just a fad or 'fashion' thing, or whether it's likely to be in use years into the future."

And then they ignore those considerations, and insert 'doing a Delia' into the book... There are lots of words that go in for only a single edition, after all. I suspect that it's more to do with personal opinions of the OED compilers, and what they're into, than with any sort of objective truth. After all, "it's all gone a bit Pete Tong" has miraculously failed to get into the OED - presumably the compilers are more into TV cooks than dance music DJs...

--

A790175 - Correct Use Of The Apostrophe In English

-Martin

How will people use search engines if they can't spell? Or if there are several accepted spellings for one word? OK search engines are used to suggesting similar words, but spellcheckers rely on every single character though.

But supposing the word "separate" was changed to "seperate" over the next two years - the internet would be full of both spellings and everyone would be even more confused.

And probably, publishing the change will draw everyone's attention to the word, and more people would then get it right.

PS - I have nothing against dyslexics and accept it as a condition, but there is no excuse for bad spelling out of laziness.

Dyslexics would be more likely to spell it seqarate rather than seperate. The main problem is pronunciation and the ideosyncrasies of the English language.

Alji (Member of The Guild of Wizards @ U197895)

Problem? Those are the best things about English!

How often have you searched for the word separate?

*Google results*

seperate: 638 000 hits
separate: 13 800 000 hits

TC, re: "If they can learn to programme computers...", I think you'll find the correct spelling in this context is "program".

Peet
(More precisely, a Scottish pedant)

the scary thing is when you type something quick into Google, get it wrong but hit enter, then get back LOADS of hits from other websites with the same incorrect spelling!

Also check

http://www.freindsreunited.co.uk

and

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/



or is this their way of saying they have little faith in the current skooling of the countries yoof?

Kadu

There's no such thing as a "correct" spelling. While most people use "program" for computers, the alternative "programme" is also occasionally used and is therefore also correct.

There's a major flaw in that argument, though, isn't there?

If it's an alternative spelling, why do we have Sub-Editors to change it to the correct one?

B

Sorry. I didn't know that. "A computer program" is the spelling I would use, but it never occurred to me to change the corresponding verb accordingly. Happy to learn something new.

I think I'd write "commputer program", but "TV programme".

Well done, Bagpuss, that's absolutely correct.

Languages change; in a relatively literate time spoken language changes faster than written language. A few hundred years ago, when there was no (or not much) writing for mass consumption people spelled (spelt? ooo 'eck!) things the way they wanted. Most words with variant spellings are in the slow process of changing from one spelling to the other, particularly under the influence of variant US spellings {like program).

Noggin