If I hit a misused[1] apostrophe in a post, it jars me. My long-time best friend is dyslexic[2] and has often used "thair" instead of
any of of the usually interchanged "their/there/they're" trilogy. I have long since stopped myself being upset by honest-to-goodness typos (dyslexia-induced or slip-of-the-fingers), 1337-5p34k/txt-spk banalities[3] and 'Americani
zed' versions of words (Color, Center, Sulfur, '-ize' words) no longer cause me so much grief that is avoided by their Anglici
sed equivalents (Colour, Centre, Sulphur, '-ise' words). Neither am I (greatly) impeded by improper capitalisation, although on all those points I
prefer it to be written nicely, and stringently endeavour to obey these rules myself except where I'm making a deliberate point or parody.
But I utterly
can't stand "Greengrocer apostrophe's[sic]". With a close second place being held by "Could of" (written or even obviously pronounced that way in speech) where "Could've"
should've[4] been used. Others avoiding those (parodies and piss-takes aside) prevents me from hitting a mental brick wall when reading. Juddering to a halt and having to resume the reading. (Unfortunately, I am not guaranteed to
write such flawless prose, as "I know what I meant to say" camouflages typos and thinkos in my own writings. At least in such quick proof-reading efforts as I might make between typing a post such as this and posting it.)
However, I don't believe the OP hit any of these particular buttons. The lack of the necessary question-mark was a more major mental jar than the lack of the capitals. Although those (at least in my friend's case) aren't a symptom of dyslexia that I'm aware of, I can still forgive both and would have personally passed over without comment 99 times out of 100, without this side-thread discussion bringing them onto the agenda.
And I
also read the original spark to this side-thread as "dood, nice Dwarfy imagery you gave me there", although the "No offence but..." line is quite often a prefix to something that perhaps shouldn't have been said. (Mainly because of the number of times its real meaning is quite the opposite. Not in this instance, though, by my judgement. Again, YMMV)
And another fault I have is that a two-line comment sometimes expands out. This is
not what I originally intended to append to the thread. (The intended contribution resides solely outside of this spoilered area. This was supposed to be an 'FYI'-like point, given the subject has been broached.) Probably best not to reply to this segment of the post, but that's just a suggestion.
[1] Includes pluralisations such as "PCs", "CDs", "MOTs", which do fine (and better) without apostrophes, up until the time you're actually indicating a possessive. ("My PC's optical drive is broken; all my CDs' surfaces are now scratched!") YMMV, as do some of the style-sheets, but I agree more with the ones that suggest that apostrophes not be used (for pure pluralisation) than the ones which allow/encourage them in these types of instance. I should probably also write the singulars as P.C., C.D. and M.O.T., though, if I were to adhere to exactly how I was taught when young.
[2] And a three-times self-published author (with proof-reading assistance, although it was his story that counted), but unfortunately didn't go for the most scrupulous of vanity publishers so they all sank without trace.
[3]1n f4c7, | (4|\| 3v3n \/\/|2173 1n 7h3 f0|2|\/|3|2 57`/|_3, but I prefer full-length words via predictive text for the latter.
[4] Grammatically the full "should have" works best there, but I liked that juxtaposition.
Author
Topic: cougar question (Read 3609 times)