Thanks for the like ET. Sometimes I feel like someone who's waved around a cartoon of the PM (the one who hung out in Mecca at around 600AD) in Islamabad High Street.
That's only because he is working his way up to become a Middle East peace envoy, once he has sorted all the naughty boys on this site.
The self-styled stars are a bit of a pain sometimes. Giles Coren once used his whole column in The Times to mock a sub editor who'd changed his copy, which I think was reprehensible bullying. Some big names have refused to allow correct changes I've made to their copy (the insertion of commas, for example) to remain. But I've been thanked by bigger names than them for picking up on gross mistakes that would have reflected badly on them and the publication (and me of course if I'd missed them).
Here's a genuine question to which I have often wanted the answer: If you've got 2 Ducati owners who each have a 1098s, for example, would you say "they went out for a ride on their 1098s's" or "their 1098ss"? I've always thought you'd use the apostrophe for clarification here but I don't know the grammatical rule that supports that hypothesis and I could be wrong.
"they went out for a ride on their Ducati 1098s motorcycles" Easy! There are many better solutions than an awkward apostrophe.
if this thread has done nothing but demonstrate how insults can lead to an escalation and a need to retaliate then it's served it's purpose.
Sure, you can avoid it, but supposing you didn't want to or were reporting speech that you hadn't invented? What is the correct punctuation/spelling?
Ducati 1098Ses is the correct form, as in "keeping up with the Joneses" but it's so ugly it would be desirable to find a different form of words all together, as has been suggested above. Any decent sub editor would do that faced with the problem.
So no apostrophe, then. Dammit. I prefer the apostrophe version, even if it's wrong. You still haven't replied to my "lying/laying" comment over on the CH Atrocity thread. What's the answer?
Or 'Ess-esses'? IE; 'they went out on their Ess-esses'. Lucky they didn't belong to Waffen SS personnel, otherwise they would be the Ess-ess's Ess-esses (unless it is the Ess-ess' Ess-esses, owned as a group rather than individuals)..... Ssssssssssssss.
You can do without the extraneous then, so: "If (cap I) this thread has done nothing but demonstrate how insults can lead to an escalation and a need to retaliate, (note comma) it's served it's purpose." Sometimes it's hard being me. I didn't choose this lunatic path in life. An editor thought I'd be good at it when I was a reporter and offered me a pay rise to become a sub editor. The rest is history! Can you imagine how long it takes me to read a newspaper???
Come on! The "then" adds emphasis, and an understood pause between the two clauses. There is nothing wrong with it. You would definitely have to be a bit Stalinist to remove it. There is surely such a thing as personal style in any case. We aren't writing standard newspaper English here, we are expressing personal views in a personal style. The huge howlers like "their" for "there" etc I find annoying, but this... pfft.
@Speed_Triple maybe i shouldn't of given up learning the rules of grammar and spelling. to late now tho. maybe i shouldn't go on to expose more of my private life, but i have a private school education and all my siblings have degrees. i just don't get spelling and punctuation. nor do i feel i is a dumb ass. i think my back ground helps me see both sides in many situations. some times that can be a bit of a pain in the ring also.
Agreed the hyphens are not essential; but it is if you wish to avoid it looking and sounding like 'assess'.
