• The forum software that supports hummy.tv has been upgraded to XenForo 2.3!

    Please bear with us as we continue to tweak things, and feel free to post any questions, issues or suggestions in the upgrade thread.

Assume v. Presume

They have changed their tune then. Still, the OED carries more authority with the educated classes.
 
gomezz said:
If it is good enough for the OED and the Plain English Campaign then it is good enough for me as is their and my acceptance of its use in TLA's and other acronyms.
Click to expand...


The 60's's possibly an exception.

Or should that be, the 60's're probably an exception?
 
The Plain English article contains a contradiction. "We have been given a week's notice" could be considered a possessive case, the noun being "a week", and the notice belonging to the week. So, what's the difference between

"In two weeks"

and

"In two weeks' time"

when they mean exactly the same thing and one appears to be a contraction of the other.

However, that's not my point. "The 1960's" could be considered a possessive, and therefore a justified apostrophe in my scheme of things.
 
I'll go along with that! So the BH corollary to the PEC take on apostrophes and numbers is:

"The late 1930's were dominated by war"

"The '60s' attitude to education"

I can't think of an example of using a numeric as a strict plural. "The protesters could be counted in the 100s" doesn't work.
 
gomezz said:
The 1960's hippy, dippy attitude to such things is much to be preferred. ;)
Click to expand...

Ah, the summer of '67, laying on the beach at Newquay, BSA A10 for transport, tent blown away by the Vulcans taking off at St.Mawgen...........bliss!
Not an apostrophe to worry over.....
 
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHhhhhhhh!

"Mr.Gove"
"St.Mawgen"

My head hurt's. The .'s are not supposed to be their, and their are space's that are mis'sing. Thi's i's anarchy! Can A10s really do transport? What about if there are A10s's? Do we say Galaxy S3s or Galaxy S3's or what? Their as's 2b a limit 's'urely? What next? i'Pad's?
 
Black Hole said:
What does CPE have to say about dots in initialisms and contractions?

(I thought the organisation is called "Campaign for Plain English", hence "CPE"... am I wrong?)
Click to expand...


Da CPE don say nuffink, innit?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top