I do it because they are standards, and I would not succeed professionally if I disregarded them. The common usage is therefore a contraction; this renders the correct usage to be without an apostrophe. The age of this rule does not make it more correct. It is just a wrong that has been repeated without proper examination.
The pay could be said to belong to the week. The apostrophe seems out of place in that context. Hello, Charlesas.
Do you know of any respected reference books that agree with your view? If so, please share them. Living things and time are the only 2 possessives that can use apostrophes. Litres of milk is not a good example as Litres are not living things nor time. The editors of style guides have begun to loosen up on the requirement that only living things can possess. Thank you for your post.
Always nice to have that little bit of gratification that I was correct in my usage. Thanks for commenting, Kirsty. If you have other questions you need help explaining, send me an email. I will try to write about them here if they relate to business writing. Thank you!
Hi, Robin. Yes, your first item is correct. What about the rule: Then noun is used as a modifier adjective it takes singular form????? Thank you Lynn! I have been looking for the correct usage of this for a while now. How marvellous to see it laid out clearly with a full explanation. No apostrophe required there. Hello, Pete.
Who agrees with your view? Common sense should rule, that is the rule. What is readable and sounds right is and should be the rule. Otherwise mankind and languages would be stuck in the past. What was written in or even for that matter may not be relevant today. Languages are created by people for people, and languages can and do change over time. Remember, except for some writers, you will be judged by the clarity and simplicity of your communication and most certainly not by historical writing rules.
My advice is — move with the times….. Hi, Tom. Following the current rules of writing helps us communicate clearly with our readers. Hi, Steve. When a respected expert in the field modernizes a rule, people can choose to follow the change or not. I could defend the change as inevitable, but many people questioned it. I believe the change would lead to confusion and questioning rather than clarity. Jim, I am sorry you missed this sentence from my post above, along with the many examples that illustrate it:.
Lynn, great post, but Percy and the others have offered clear and reasoned arguments to disagree with this convention. The fact that you have some books that say to do it a certain way is not a sufficient refutation to their valid points. Proper communication is more than a set of dogmatic rules and I find it humorous when people cite the opinions of style books as universal and absolute truth. Hi, Kevin. We all make our own choices about language.
My job on this blog is to offer my many years of experience and study to help people make good decisions in their business writing. I typically consult the many current style manuals on my bookshelf to support the advice I give. Sometimes people disagree with me and the published experts. When they can cite no expert who agrees with them, yes, they stand alone, perhaps like the first person who argued that the world was round.
This is a possessive form, and the apostrophe is required. Again, it is a possessive form. Take what you find helpful here, and ignore the rest. However, I do suggest finding at least one acknowledged expert who agrees with you, or your argument is likely to be ignored—at least until others come around to your view. Which is correct according to style guides?
Feel free to leave a comment here or on the Facebook page. Your question and the answer could be featured in a future post. Fun topic to debate. It is a problem that the logical part of my brain cannot accept.
So I came up with a standard method of applying these terms many years ago. You are spot on with a couple since it commonly is used to refer to 2. From there I tackled few, several and many. Since few is more than 2 and less than several I decided I would use Four to denote a target area for Few.
It is the way that our mind records quantities, and why we are not good at appreciating large quantities. Are you all out of your minds?!? How can a few be two when that is what is meant by a couple, and how can several be three and yet still be more than a few, which—I think most people with two eyes and a brain can see—is more than a couple, or two?
Thank you for indulging my little rant;-. I can't find anywhere that suggests adding the "now" implies a longer time, but certainly when I read "a few years ago now. Note: I'm British and have lived in the US. I'd suspect this is more British than American. My wife's English is excellent, though not a native speaker.
However long "a few years" is, the effect of the "now" isn't to increase or decrease the amount of time between that past moment and now -- it is merely to indicate that, with the passing of time, that amount has now lengthened to a few years. In the 19th century, that great grammarian, Humpty-Dumpty, addressed a very similar problem in "Alice in Wonderland". Giving us his illumination on all such problems, he stated "A word means exactly what I want it to mean, nothing more, nothing less.
This understanding was accepted by most grammarians until, it is believed, the early s, when "A husband's place is in the wrong" was introduced. The original theory was then amended to "A word means exactly what your wife wants it to mean, nothing more, nothing less.
As an aside, linguists have yet to find a language in which this is not true, and Noam Chomsky has taken an interest. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.
Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How long is "a few years ago now. Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 4 months ago.
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