A bunch of Apostrophe's

[Arden]

You obviously haven't been to the Middle East in the last 60 years...

[Randman]

Bad Mr Tea, sneaky but bad. I like it.

[michaelsanford]

If I may take from my university studies and add to that:

"Come inside," it says, "for CD's, VIDEO's, DVD's, and BOOK's."

If this satanic sprinkling of redundant apostraphes causes no little gasp of horror or quickening of he pulse, you should probably put this book down right now [...] for any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word "Book's" with an apostraphe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated"

Eats, Shoots and Leaves : the approach to zero tolerance punctuation, Truss L., Gotham Books (Penguin Groups) 2003

You must be one of those people...(ssh, I am too)

"It's" is just as bad: people seem to have a problem with genitive case markers in English. Well, with the one (regular) genitive case marker.

[TommyWillB]

Originally Posted by Mr Tea

To my eternal chagrin, CaptainQuark, I was entirely unaware of the term 'Oxford Comma' until I read your reply to my post. Fortunately, this is 2005, I am online, and there is Google. Within seconds, I had access to 54,988,046,221 potential sources of information with which to rectify my ignorance (truly we live in an age of wonders); I made straight for the horse's mouth, where I found a clear (if somewhat partisan) explanation.

So, in answer to your question, yes: I wholeheartedly embrace the Oxford Comma (but sometimes have to wash my hands afterwards).

lol

There is the answer to that other question that's been bugging me ever since childhood: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexper...tomato?view=uk

[michaelsanford]

Yeah I thought it had to do with seeds too but I never remember for sure. Is a hot pepper a fruit ? I guess so since it has seeds...some people eat them as fruit (my Hungarian friend's grandfather for example :P)

[Pigumon]

Originally Posted by Mr Tea

Sorry to be a pedant, but the phrase "Lot's of great people, all fanatical about Mac's" should not have any apostrophes in it.

I'd say the Mac apostrophe can be used because Mac is an abbreviation of Macintosh. So the apostrophe indicates the abbreviation. ' = intosh

But you can argue that Mac is its own word now, it's probably tradmarked as Mac too... so the apostrophe is unnecessary.

I just think it's really sad how the majority of us feel it's unnecessary to learn.

[Pigumon]

Originally Posted by CaptainQuark

Typical bleedin' author - "It's my book/post, so I'll write what I want, how I want it, and copy editors and good English be damned!"



Why do I bother?



(Note the correct use of the comma before the first 'and', there. That's NOT an Oxford Comma, but a comma indicating a separate, but integral part of the sentence. Had I used an Oxford Comma before the SECOND 'and', that sentence would not have made sense!)

Cap (and also Randman), There are very specific instances when an Oxford Comma is necessary. It's not just a comma thrown in whenever the word "and" appears. To quote AskOxford:

"It is so called because it was traditionally used by printer's readers and editors at Oxford University Press. Sometimes it can be necessary for clarity when the items in the list are not single words:

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green."

The last comma is an Oxford Comma. It separates the group "red and yellow" from the group "blue and green". If that comma was not there, then your item would be 4 colors and not 2!

But I agree, and I'm completely guilty of this, that using it before the only "and" in a sentence is unnecessary. Now that I've looked at that, I'll probably stop doing it. I just always get the feeling that I'm combining the last two items. Like "We serve pork, beef, beans and rice." It really feels to me that the beans and rice are one item.

Mmmm, pooork.

[dlloyd]

Uhhh, way to bring up a long-dead thread for your first two posts... ;-)