Formulae, anyone?

[caringsharingbristolbilly]

With the surname "Knibb" in real life, I was never very impressed with the suggestion Microsoft Word spell checker came up with... :wink:

 

[Legacy 5624]

Very sneaky of you to change "forgotton" to "forgotten" without a word of appreciation for its having been drawn to your attention.

 

[Glaswegian]

Once again another thread that I am unable to join, having been previously described as 'grammatically challenged'.

And W.Pooh's style seems rather familiar....

 

[Todd Bardoni]

Yet it's one of the things which seems to baffle many people.

If it baffles many people then why keep it? Do you really have a problem discerning the difference between:-

You're - Youre
Don't - Dont
I'm - Im
You'll - Youll

The only problem one may forsee is:-

It's - Its

But, taking context into consideration one should be able to easily figure it out.

Take for instance Bow. Same spelling, two different meanings. However, one can eaily figure out, "He tied a bow around the present" and "He took a bow."

As for getting rid of all puntuation that would just be preposterous.

 

[caringsharingbristolbilly]

The ones that find my goat and get right on it are:

your - you're - "If your going home" If my what is going home?
their - they're - "If their going home"
its - it's (as you say) - "It's policies were very good" It is policies? Uh?

And while they're easy to figure out in isolation, they also make things unnecessarily hard to read... The apostrophe serves a very important purpose in highlighting where letters are missing, or where the possessive is used. In the words of A.E. Housman; "Accuracy is a duty, not a virtue"*.

I like these from Stephen Fry's autobiography:

1. A sentence with "and" in it five times in a row:
A signwriter, John, is training his apprentice, Martin, on how to do a pub sign for the Dog and Duck. Martin is having a go, and seems to be doing fine, until John says:
"You need a bigger space between Dog and And and And and Duck".

Brilliant.

2. A sentence with 7 prepositions in a row:
A small boy is awaiting a bedtime story from his mum. She enters the room, bringing a book about Australia. He says:
"Mum, what did you bring a book to read about down under out of up for?"

I love our utterly ridiculous language!!

Oh, and thanks for pointing out the error, W. Pooh. It was very late on a friday!

Yours,

Caring Sharing Pompous Git Bristol Billy Bob. :wink:

* - http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1353559,00.html

 

[CousinJack]

I'll join the movement to restore the Formulae.

I'll take some of the Apostrophe Catastrophe stickers

I HATE people who do not know the difference between there *** and their elbow and epecially between your elbow and you're (an) ***.

But simple bad spelling I must accept, since I am guilty as charged ! Spelling checkers are wonderful things, but are not (unfortunately) infallible.

 

[litrelord]

[Offtopic]
Personally I like having the apostrophe. Yes it's possible to get by without it and still work out the meaning of pretty much any statement but it just seems lazy to me. But each to their own. I completely understand where you're coming from. However if you continue in your apostrophe bashing I may just have to send these guys round > http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
[/Offtopic]

To me formulae seems the more correct although I seem to use formulas more often. So I’m now going to change my ways and use formulae. Or possibly just start saying “more than one formula”.

Nick

 

[goldcat]

Today, with grammer checkers and spell checkers, your lucky if I can spell my own name. I remember, when I was in high school, that I was able to spell and able to create a complete sentance. Now, I don't even remember the rules, except for the verb and noun thing.


Cal

I cant even remember that !!!!! ( and boy does it p**s the wife off)

 

[killerleaf]

yes for apostrophes

if it were not for an apostrophe, then my father would have been unable to give me the name that everyone knows me by. Dee'D
It is a contraction, short for Drusilla Don. So, I have a special affinity for the little 's!

 

[tails]

We need the apostrophe, if we did not have it, there would be a lot of bad spelling in the world.
Like for instance a local take away store near me called robs
ok now it is robs's take away
or it is robss take away
looks kinda stupid dont it
See the apostrophe has a bigger effect than people think
if we didn't have it people would have to think more
for example you have a pet called it
its not with you at this present time, it is at home asleep while your out with mates
'it had a bone in it's mouth'
'it had a bone in its mouth'
'it had a bone in its' mouth
which one is right... ?