Where is the random wrong punctuation coming from?

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by ajgriff

With very few exceptions it is accepted practice today for abbreviations and acronyms to be expressed in capital letters and pluralised by the simple addition of the letter s. An apostrophe denotes possession although it is sometimes used to replace missing letters in which case you'd arrive at t'v's for televisions. Search Google if you don't believe me.

Alan

Agreed 100%.

[ajgriff]

Originally Posted by ms660

That would be well clear enough for me and most sane folks just like a bunch of free, working PX25's....

How many?!

[ms660]

Originally Posted by ajgriff

How many?!

21 in bunches of 3's

Lawrence.

[stevehertz]

And while we're being pedantic, when prefixing a word with a quantity it is normal practice to use written words when the number or quantity is ten or below, or numbers when it's above ten. So, eight valves or 22 capacitors.

[kalee20]

Originally Posted by Station X

It's the exception to the rule though. A possessive form with no apostrophe. That's why it catches people out.

As my English teacher said "You wouldn't say the dog followed it is owner, would you?

Correctly, it should be:

It's a chair and its seat is upholstered.

The third person singular pronouns are: him, her, it

In possessive form they are: his, her, its. After all, you wouldn't write his as hi's, would you? And the feminine form doesn't even end with "s"! (though there is the 'other' possessive form, his, hers, its).

[ms660]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

And while we're being pedantic, when prefixing a word with a quantity it is normal practice to use written words when the number or quantity is ten or below, or numbers when it's above ten. So, eight valves or 22 capacitors.

Or 7 Days....

Lawrence.

[slidertogrid]

I wasn't in any doubt that anyone would be confused by TVs TV's or TV;s what I was curious about was where all the random punctuation had come from as if I had got it wrong on the original title it wouldn't then change twice on its own. (would it?) I wondered if there was some sort of forum spellcheck 'bot having a blue fit somewhere!
I had a leaflet promoting one of the local political groups, on the back it had a section on where to get local help and advice including "Help with CV's" Not sure I would want them to help me with mine..

Rich.

[IanG3XYV]

The other common error is in correct use of there, their and they're:-

They're sitting in their chairs over there.

[SiriusHardware]

Don't get me started on "you're" (...you are), now very commonly mis-written as 'your'.

[Skywave]

I do realise that these days many people seem to be in a hurry, so it is very tempting to use abbreviations - such as 'TVs' - and similar. But to avoid possible confusion, it takes very little extra effort to write 'TV sets', clearly meaning more than one 'TV', or even simply to write 'Televisions'.

Slightly veering off on a tangent, but within the thread title of punctuation, what I do find annoying is the very common misuse of the colon and the semicolon.

Another example is using " when repeating what someone has said.
Example:
He said "The fox jumped over the lazy dog". That is correct, but
He said, quote, "The fox jumped over the lazy dog" unquote is incorrect, since when the words 'quote' & 'unquote' are used, the " " are not applicable.

I could get really boring and go on for pages on this topic, but I'm sure to everyone's relief, I shall desist!

Al. / Oct. 28th.

[AdrianH]

Reading this lot is it's clear. Grammar police do exist.

Adrian

[GrimJosef]

I can recommend Lynne Truss's amusing and informative book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_%26_Leaves, to anyone who's looking for a reasonably consistent set of punctuation rules. She does accept the use of the 1960's, with the apostrophe, to describe the decade though.

Cheers,

GJ

[Radio Wrangler]

Originally Posted by slidertogrid

what I was curious about was where all the random punctuation had come from as if I had got it wrong on the original title it wouldn't then change twice on its own. (would it?) I wondered if there was some sort of forum spellcheck 'bot having a blue fit somewhere!

Any spelling and grammar checking is, I think, native to whatever machine you are creating text on. This Apple has a liking for suggesting the wrong ones of they're , their, it's, its. and all the usuals. Apple must have got a job lot of apostrophes from some chain of bankrupt grocer's shops, while the rest seems random.

The forum does scan for a collection of unacceptable words, so you can't say ***, ****, *******, or even **************.

David

[emeritus]

I would not use an apostrophe for " We did it that way in the 1960s" because that is not a posessive, but I would for " 1960s' practice was to ..." . because that is a posessive, meaning "The practice of the 1960s was to.." If it was the practice of the single year 1960, then it would be "1960's practice".

At my junior school in East London circa 1955 (Victorian building and probably Victorian- or Edwardian- trained teachers) I remember doing exercises in reported speech where we used single quotes for what the person said, double quotes for what the person had said another person had said, single quotes for the next person and so on, writing sentences such as Fred said ' John said " Peter said 'Jane said "Mother said that my brother said ' My dog is the best ' " ' " '. I can't recall ever having had to use that sort of reported speech construction in real life!

[emeritus]

Sorry, meant to say the first quote was double, second single, third double etc. It's been a long day!

[G.Castle]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Apple must have got a job lot of apostrophes from some chain of bankrupt grocer's shops.
David

Our local green grocer, a well educated person, would paint his special offers on the inside of the window of his shop with whitewash and make deliberate errors to amuse, baffle, and deceive.

A few years ago I visited the shop to buy fruit, and applauded the owner on the special he had painted on his window:

"COXS'S APPLE'S, 6's, FOUR A POUND"

I bought 6.

They cost £1-80.

We all make errors, but one style I find hard to follow is where posts are typed in one long paragraph with no punctuation whatsoever.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Originally Posted by G.Castle

We all make errors, but one style I find hard to follow is where posts are typed in one long paragraph with no punctuation whatsoever.

I fully agree with that, but I don't think we should get too uptight about perfect Grammar and typing; most of us are getting on a bit to get 10/10 for every piece of work .

B

Stephen Fry calls Lynne Truss "That bl**dy apostrophe woman".

[stevehertz]

I did a technical writing course as part of my City & Guilds electronics course. The basic premise of which was that what you write should be totally unambiguous. That makes total sense to me and I also strongly believe that the same should apply to everyday speech and writing. The use of proper English particularly punctuation, is not rocket science, and for some reason for decades now pupils are not exiting schools with a high standard of English grammar, written or spoken. Want proof? Spend some time on Facebook, every thread contains posts that are "eats shoots and leaves", ie multiple meanings. Seriously, lives can be lost due to the use of poor English.

[Station X]

On that note it's time to close this thread with a full stop!