{ ; }

[delga]

Oh, people, come on. Let us celebrate the beauty that is the semi-colon. Seriously. learn how to use it. Love it. Embrace it into your world.

;

See? Isn't that a thing of beauty? Stop using it as a fucking apostrophe and stop replacing it with commas. Commas are like mice; they breed extraordinarily quickly.

Comments

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

The rule for possessives is simple. If it's a singular, add apostrophe s. If it's plural, just add an apostrophe. This is the standard that is used today.

The standard I was taught had an exception to the singular; if the singular already ends in 's', you add an apostrophe, but no extra s. The rule has been standardised to the above to make it easier to use.

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know the basic rule; I was talking about the 'singular that ends with s' exception.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

I know :) My point was that the confusion arose because of what the rule used to be.

[emily-reich.livejournal.com]

The rule for possessives is simple. If it's a singular, add apostrophe s. If it's plural, just add an apostrophe. This is the standard that is used today.

i think the main confusion that arises for some people with this rule (though it seems pretty simple to me, but, well...) is that in spoken english (american anyway) we say an extra "'s" after every possesive, whether it has an s at the end or not and whether it is singular or plural.

anyway, er, i'd say i'm guilty of semi-colon abuse (except for formal writing of course)... i just replace it with a "..." though in my own defense i do know HOW to use it :p i just don't... most of the time :p *is bad*

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand what you mean. Other than with pronouns, all nouns have to add an s to show possession. So you'd say it that way anyway.

TCH TCH. LOVE THY SEMI-COLON.

[emily-reich.livejournal.com]

well possessive plurals in written english (at least how i learned it) have just an apostophe at the end without a second s, but in spoken english (like i said, here anyway) there's an extra s that's pronounced... so some poor shmucks get confused :p

TCH TCH. LOVE THY SEMI-COLON.

*loves, loves!!!*

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

No, that's what we were talking about earlier. James' and James's. Both are pronounced "Jaymzes". The difficulty in the old rule is that it's contradictory. Hence the standardisation.

Actually, I've just re-read what you wrote. Are you saying that you'd read "the boys' [pl.] socks" as "the boyses socks"? Or are you just talking about nouns that end in s?

And it is a difficult rule, especially if you're not taught correctly. These days schools teach the standardised version but a lot of people still go by the old rule, myself included. Don't even get me started on trying to explain why its (possessive) doesn't have an apostrophe. (In that case, the only time 'its' has an apostrophe is if it means "it is"; otherwise "its" exists as a pronoun).

[emily-reich.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've just re-read what you wrote. Are you saying that you'd read "the boys' [pl.] socks" as "the boyses socks"? Or are you just talking about nouns that end in s?

it depends on the noun, and also on the dialect of the speaker... some dialects DO pronounce it "boyzes" and such... i pronounce it on some words, but not all... but then, i don't have a problem with the rule :p

And it is a difficult rule, especially if you're not taught correctly. These days schools teach the standardised version but a lot of people still go by the old rule, myself included.

yeah, i still go by the old rule since that's how i was taught

Don't even get me started on trying to explain why its (possessive) doesn't have an apostrophe. (In that case, the only time 'its' has an apostrophe is if it means "it is"; otherwise "its" exists as a pronoun).

O.M.G. when people screw that up it drives me NUTS!!! it's worse than there, they're, their!! :P

a typo is one thing (we're all guilty of that :p), but when people just.don't.get.punctuation. no matter what (in formal writing and fiction and stuff) it just drives me bonkers! incorrect use of commas is the worst!

ok, done now :p