Ok language gurus
-
English is a mis mash of several languages, were words from different languages have come into use, from Latin, Anglo Saxon, French and German, plus many others. e.g. Pig and Pork once were the description of a Pig Pig, I belive was from the Anglo Saxon Pigge whereas Pork came from the old French Porc. Over time the usage words changed, to what we have now, there are many similar examples.
Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas A. Edison
It's interesting to see how animal names have remained Anglo-Saxon while their meats are from French. Let's see: pig -> pork (Fr. porc) cow -> beef (Fr. boeuf) And there are many others but I don't recall them. I have a symbiotic relationship with my computer.
-
Simply put, English sucks. Woke up this morning...and got myself a blog
I got voted down to a 1?? Christ, you leave out one teeny weeny smiley emoticon and the masses turn on you. :doh: It was a joke, people, a joke!! I love English!! I love anything to do with English. I even love *gasp* the English!! Woke up this morning...and got myself a blog
-
It's interesting to see how animal names have remained Anglo-Saxon while their meats are from French. Let's see: pig -> pork (Fr. porc) cow -> beef (Fr. boeuf) And there are many others but I don't recall them. I have a symbiotic relationship with my computer.
I've learn't something new, I hadn't spotted that!
Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas A. Edison
-
Here's something I've been pondering for the last few minutes: If it's means it is and its is a possesive pronoun1, then why do I see things like captain's and captains in text where both variants are used as possesive pronouns? I.e., captain's in those contexts does not mean captain is. What's going on here? Does 50% have it all wrong (the distribution of ' is approximately 50/50) or is this an ambiguity in the English language? :confused: 1 I think that's what it's called in English. :~ -- You still have your old friend Zoidberg. You all have Zoidberg!
As stated, "its" is the exception, it is always posessive, and "it's" is always the contraction of "it is". As for posessive, here are some examples of correct and incorrect usage, as noted by the smiles. :-D Code Project is a developer's best friend. X| Code Projet contains developers articles and ideas. :-D A lot of developers use Code Project. X| Code Project is a great site for developer's. A side note about the last example - many many years back I had an interview for Digital (Yep, before they were even Compaq) and there was gift shop that had a list of items for sale. They all were spelled incorrectly - they were plurals but had apostrophes. But somebody else had evidently come along and noticed the error, since there were X's through all the apostrophes. :-D If your nose runs and your feet smell, then you're built upside down.
-
Here's something I've been pondering for the last few minutes: If it's means it is and its is a possesive pronoun1, then why do I see things like captain's and captains in text where both variants are used as possesive pronouns? I.e., captain's in those contexts does not mean captain is. What's going on here? Does 50% have it all wrong (the distribution of ' is approximately 50/50) or is this an ambiguity in the English language? :confused: 1 I think that's what it's called in English. :~ -- You still have your old friend Zoidberg. You all have Zoidberg!
Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: Does 50% have it all wrong Yes. Captain's is the possessive form for a single captain. Captains is the plural of captain. And captains' is the possessive form for multiple captains. Its is an oddity - the word should be it's for the possessive, but it's was already taken for the contraction of it is. "When a surly lout knocked our captain's hat to the floor, a meeting of all the captains was called to judge the case. The meeting, however, was unbearably stuffy as, being held shortly after a sumptuous supper, the room was quickly filled with the pungent odors of the captains' flatulence." "Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile when you see one
tumble down the stairs." -
What came first? Contractions or possesive pronouns? Clearly, there's a bug in the English language. Someone should fix this mess. :-D -- You still have your old friend Zoidberg. You all have Zoidberg!
We're working on a Service Pack now... Send me your bank account and credit card numbers and I'll see to it that you're added to the mailing list. "Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile when you see one
tumble down the stairs." -
Simply put, English sucks. Woke up this morning...and got myself a blog
-
Here's something I've been pondering for the last few minutes: If it's means it is and its is a possesive pronoun1, then why do I see things like captain's and captains in text where both variants are used as possesive pronouns? I.e., captain's in those contexts does not mean captain is. What's going on here? Does 50% have it all wrong (the distribution of ' is approximately 50/50) or is this an ambiguity in the English language? :confused: 1 I think that's what it's called in English. :~ -- You still have your old friend Zoidberg. You all have Zoidberg!
As you said, its is a possessive pronoun, like his, her and their. In English apostrophes are used both in the possessive form of nouns and in abbreviations, but not in possessive pronouns. So, captains is the plural of captain, captains' is the possessive plural and captain's can be either a possessive singular or an abbreviation of captain is (which would normally only be used when quoting spoken words).
-
Simply put, English sucks. Woke up this morning...and got myself a blog
-
Simply put, English sucks. Woke up this morning...and got myself a blog
Oooo Tough crowd... Hope my Bronze 5 can save your witty comment from a fate worse than deletion :-D (I know how you feel - I NEVER EVER leave out smilies nowadays :))
Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
-
Simply put, English sucks. Woke up this morning...and got myself a blog