too bad college students dont understand the difference
it should be "Mr Jones’ turkey"
that is what tricks a lot of my students in my business classes
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Rogue apostrophes
- Thread starter JBGoode
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The internet and various style guides appear to be all over the place on this issue. In school 20 years ago, I was taught either was acceptable. The internet seems to think that is still the case.
There may be some discrepancy and latitude as to “Thomas’ dog” vs “Thomas’s dog.” But never would you add -es to these with an apostrophe as suggested in the second quote from my above post.
Apostrophes are one thing, commas are another level of problem all together: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180723-the-commas-that-cost-companies-millions.
Oh my God!!!
Now it's even hit the local TV news station! Phoenix is a major market and the stations here all act like they are run by junior high schoolers!!!!
That would be one of the few places I would never expect to see this happen. I mean, doesn't the study of journalism involve the study of English?
It does, but the nature of broadcast news has changed over the years. Especially with local stations.
Generally, the broadcast is minimal. The anchors and the production staff. The cameras are automatic now (no one behind them operating them). Generally, the producer enters the texts in the visuals shortly before the segment airs - on the fly. This was a small segment before the news went to break.
They corrected the misspelling when they got to the actual story.
So it really comes down to the producer (or whomever enters the chyron text) and anyone who looks like they may be breathing.
You can blame all this on cost-cutting and 'efficiency'. The news channels decided that camera operators and full broadcast crews were unnecessary. Automatic cameras and minimal people doing multiple roles is the result. Local stations are always tight on budgets and staff anyways so this makes it worse.
And it shows on the screen.
I work in tv. Mistakes happen all the time. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, other craziness. We catch what we can but we miss stuff.
Poor spelling drives me bonkers as well, but sometimes the generic answer of "use spell check" isn't particularly helpful. In the instance of loose vs. lose above, spell check would have done nothing as "loose" isn't misspelled. It's the incorrect word for that context, but spell check doesn't check context.
Anguish Languish and "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut" are some of my favorite examples of correctly spelled English, but completely discontextumalized. At best, it sounds like an unusual accent when speaked all proper like. The very first time I heard it I thought someone was improvising in Nadsat, another fun way to discommunicate betwixt malchicks.
Well yes, I'm often assessed as an "unknown detected".
1. All numbers have unique names. Think about it.
2. But, given that your intended point was that eleven and twelve don't follow the regular "teens pattern", also note that the entire teen series is "rogue." The series should go something like; "ten, tennyone, tennytwo..."
The first time I read this post I blinked and read it again hoping to this time understand what I had just read..... Finally I had sense enough to click on "Anguish Languish" when I realized it was a link....and lo, illumination dawned. First time I've ever heard of this! Very interesting.
Maybe the house was just blown off its foundation?
[doublepost=1545598440][/doublepost]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_d'Heures
Mare-sea bow-cool. Ivan Nazi gnat beef oar. Real horrorshow. Double-plus good.
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Wow, I didn't think my venting thread would garner so many responses. We got a nice "Merry Christmas from the Smith's" this morning on Facebook. I was going to post a little "Thank's" on his timeline but nahhh....
Then my job here is done.
<Rides off into sunset, narrowly ducking giant floating "The End">
By far, the greater number of errors made on TV newscasts are in mispronunciations. Vowels are the main culprit. So many vowels are pronounced "uh", it's ridiculous. (event, Missouri... and many, many more) Another common error is dropping syllables. Almost no one properly pronounces Las Vegas. Currently, the most frequently mispronounced word in the news is immigration, if you don't count the weather segment. (temperature, meteorologist) New hires at local TV stations don't bother to learn the correct pronunciations of local towns, places, streets, businesses, ...you name it.
They'll never learn, as the "old-timers" are retiring and leaving the corruption intact.Most people don't pronounce my name correctly, including family. I gave up on that one long ago.
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut has to be heard to be believed.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/files/exhibits/ladle/
Armor goring tumor groin-murder's," reprisal ladle gull. "Grammar's seeking bet. Armor ticking arson burden barter an shirker cockles."