The level of literacy on NSC...

[Sam]

Serial or Oxford comma's are for bumptious academics!

BTW, the apostrophe shouldn't be there, your use of the word "comma" is referring to more than one comma, therefore you should use commas and not comma's. I thought i'd get in before the large one as it seems this thread is turning into an english essay.

 

[Titanic]

Thank you so much

 

[Brovion]

I do so like to see smartly turned-out sentences, it says so much about a person. And so few people on here no how to use a semi-colon, it's really poor. (Whoops, started a sentence with 'And' there. Black mark). And I agree about splitting infinitives (whoops and another one), it's only frowned on because it's impossible in Latin or French. Comma useage, like homosexuality, I believe is completely down to the individual.

Get Fatbadger on here, he sounds just like my mum when discussing the mechanics of the English language.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Just u wayt tilll you haf 2 read won of FGs post!s

 

[sydney]

no ? no ? no..!!?? it's know you cretin......now right it out a hundred times...

 

[the right footed denilson]

blame me

balme it all on me

im an english teacher and my spelling, grammar, sentence structure etc is absolutely appaling!!!

 

[Juan Albion]

Here here.....

I think you mean 'Hear, hear!'

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

ffo kcuf

 

[Sorrel]

Most of these grammar rules, such as the one saying "don't start a sentence with 'And'" are unimportant. There's nothing wrong with it, provided the sentence makes sense within its context. I was reading "Great Expectations" the other day, and Dickens does it; that's good enough for me.

Equally, I have no problem with missing apostrophes, if that’s what people want to do. Words do change over time and it’s perfectly likely that “don’t” will one day become “dont”. It only looks a bit silly now because we’re not used to it.

As for the hyphen – yes, it does seem to be ubiquitous these days. It’s any easy thing to use if you just want a brief pause. I suspect hyphens are replacing semi-colons.

 

[Titanic]

Semi-colons are essential in complex lists; for a brief pause, however, a comma, or, occasionally, a hyphen, will suffice.

 

[The Large One]

Equally, I have no problem with missing apostrophes, if that’s what people want to do. Words do change over time and it’s perfectly likely that “don’t” will one day become “dont”. It only looks a bit silly now because we’re not used to it.

I am afraid that, using that yardstick, we would be witnessing the destruction of the English language as we know it. I appreciate that there are many instances where apostrophes have now been discontinued and that a new word has resulted. However, the apostrophe serves its purpose in identifying missing letters, and NO current form of teaching, or indeed learning, has been recognised to demonstrate that the missing apostrophe in these examples is correct English.

I acknowledge that this may be irrespective of the fact that, as you quite rightly imply, English is a forever-evolving language. However, it is understood that, at present, it is an error, upheld by laziness in the education system, and compounded by the fact that there are too few who correct it.

However, missing apostrophes are not necessarily the problem - it's the use of the abhorrent apostrophe, of which greengrocers and NSC users are probably the worst offenders. And I shudder when I read them.






There, finished. Phew!

 

[Braders]

me english good youre english cack go back too skool idiotsss

 

[Titanic]

Utter tosh - it's the peoples' language and they can do with it what they will.

(and I have no idea, nor care one jot, whether the apostrophe on peoples is correct or not - y'know what I mean, 'arry !)

 

[Sorrel]

However, missing apostrophes are not necessarily the problem - it's the use of the abhorrent apostrophe, of which greengrocers and NSC users are probably the worst offenders. And I shudder when I read them.

Yes, it is sometimes annoying. I sometimes worry if I get it right, especially when using the "'s" in the sense of ownership.

But language has to move on. Otherwise we'd say "fowl" instead of "bird", "swine" instead of "pig", and "hound" instead of "dog". Spelling and punctuation should only be a reflection of the spoken word, not the other way round.

 

[sully]

I'm afraid I sit on the fence with this one.

Whilst I like to see "proper" English in the written form, and cringe at signs such as the ones earlier in this thread, I also believe that getting the message across is the most important thing, and writing is just a tool to achieve this.

However, in my job, we have a set of rules by which everyone works so that there is no argument about the meaning of information. That is what has evolved in our language, and ignoring the rules can lead to confusion and misinterpretation. In extreme cases, I've seen arguments and fights start just because someone has misinterpreted the meaning of what someone else has said to them. It is only by learning our common language properly - something that Johnny Foreigner is much better at than us - that such misunderstandings are avoided.

On the other hand, on here it's fun when people make simple mistakes that others can poke fun at!

I'm sure Chaucer would agree that language mustn't evolve as it makes reading old books difficult.

 

[sully]

Oops, quoted instead of edited. Now I've got to edit two posts!!

 

[The Large One]

Yes, it is sometimes annoying. I sometimes worry if I get it right, especially when using the "'s" in the sense of ownership.

Simple rule, really.

An apostrophe comes after the noun and before the 'S', except where the noun ends in an 'S' when just the apostrophe (no extra 'S') is used.

No apostrophe is used for possessive pronouns (his, hers, theirs, yours, its etc).

For the 'S' to be utilised to make a plural, DO NOT USE A F*****G APOSTROPHE.

 

[JEM]

My grammar is unimpeachable.

 

[sherriffbart]

Hello.

Just to add my contribution to this most erudite of threads, the user known as "the large one" has unfortunately made one of the most common of "schoolboy errors", in that he/she has inadvertantly used the word "containing" twice in one sentence ( the opening one)

Poor effort really

Sherriff

 

[Brovion]

Good point sherriff, however I'll forgive him as I totally support his battle to lose the aberrant apostrophe. What do they teach them at Greengrocer School?

Titanic you are correct about the language evolving, I'm not too fussed about grammatical rules - and I love hyphens! It's really only apostrophes that get my goat.