How to use an apostrophe

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Hatter The Mad said:
I think I just urinated.

But seriously, I respect your opinion - but again, I think you're off this thread's mark. It isn't about "Queens English", it is not about "laziness" - it is about poor literacy in general.

Annoying people like me don't like it. Employers stress over it. The Government are embarrassed by it. Poor literacy is a problem, and it will only get bigger as this generations moves on one.
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I started reading this thread, nodding in agreement. Then I got to here and realised that pretty much every post you've made has some sort of glaring grammatical error. If you're going to post threads about the declining standards of the English language, at least have the decency to learn how to speak and write in it yourself.

The one I've quoted has been edited and still has a couple.

I quite frankly couldn't care less. If I can't make sense of a post or it looks like it's been smashed out by a knuckle-dragging keyboard warrior I just skip it and read the next.
 
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If some people get p155ed off by people using the wrong punctuation sometimes, or putting an apostrophe sometimes then I'm afraid they need to get a life.
 
dirtydog said:
This is wrong, using a comma before 'and' is entirely legitimate if you wish to insert a pause into the sentence.

See my post below, and consider how differently it would read with and without the comma.
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I wasn't talking about the use of commas and "and" in general, I was talking about the specific context.

I said either one or the other, the meaning of the sentence is the same and it doesn't read any differently either way:

Poor literacy is a problem, it will only get bigger as this generations moves on one.

vs

Poor literacy is a problem and it will only get bigger as this generations moves on one.

Of course there are times when a comma with an "and" makes something easier to understand. This was not one of those times (you can omit the "and", in fact in the first example, the comma could probably do with being a semi-colon...but that's a matter of style rather than formal usage).

:)
 
russ0r said:
I started reading this thread, nodding in agreement. Then I got to here and realised that pretty much every post you've made has some sort of glaring grammatical error. If you're going to post threads about the declining standards of the English language, at least have the decency to learn how to speak and write in it yourself.
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I never claimed to be an expert or write English perfectly (no one can, because there isn't an exhaustive English rule book). I make mistakes, everyone does, but I'd like to believe that I make far fewer than most people. I also take correcting them and learning proper grammar very seriously.

I'm also not sure why my grammatical mistakes would stop you agreeing with the sentiment of this thread or my original post.
 
The irony of people reading a thread about apostrophes and then saying that people need to get a life is also causing me some calibration problems.

:)
 
Mr^B said:
I wasn't talking about the use of commas and "and" in general, I was talking about the specific context.

I said either one or the other, the meaning of the sentence is the same and it doesn't read any differently either way:

Poor literacy is a problem, it will only get bigger as this generations moves on one.

vs

Poor literacy is a problem and it will only get bigger as this generations moves on one.

Of course there are times when a comma with an "and" makes something easier to understand. This was not one of those times (you can omit the "and", in fact in the first example, the comma could probably do with being a semi-colon...but that's a matter of style rather than formal usage).

:)
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I agree that that particular sentence of his could have been worded better; I just thought you were saying that to put a comma before 'and' was actually incorrect rather than simply a bad choice in this case :) Quite a few people do seem to believe that, which is why I thought you might have been among their number
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dirtydog said:
Quite a few people do seem to believe that, which is why I thought you might have been among their number
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I was explicitly taught 'never put a comma before and' when I was in junior school. Not surprising a lot of people believe it as I can't imagine it was a particularly isolated case.
 
Kenai said:
I was explicitly taught 'never put a comma before and' when I was in junior school. Not surprising a lot of people believe it as I can't imagine it was a particularly isolated case.
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Unfortunately some teachers' English isn't up to par, something which I discovered at school myself. I learned most of my command of written English from reading books rather than from school.
 
I've got to be honest I really couldn't care less about my English when using a forum. I'm an Engineer not a literary god. I use the forum mostly for having a laugh and constantly being told that I'm not putting apostrophes in the correct place or havent used the correct word is extremely irritating.

Also I find that spelling, punctuation and grammer are used far too much as backup for people who are on the loosing end of an argument.
 
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