Illiteracy in the New York Times
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- CyBrainX
This is not just an idle pet peeve.
Read this quote from The New York Times.
"...the most popular DVD's in China,..."
If you can't rely on them to not use an apostrophe for plurals, then we're doomed. This is not an isolated oversight. I've seen them do it in headlines too.
- 4cY0
yes, but this is an abbrevation, and thus it makes sense.
if not it could be about a new format: DVDs.
my 2c.
- jevad0
I agree with 4cy there
- CyBrainX0
but it's still a plural. Apostrophes are only for possession or contractions.
- unfittoprint0
I'm more inclined to agree with CyBrain. It's a plural, not a possesion, contraction.
- JazX0
ha hahaa that's a joke
- ChumleyUK0
This is what happens when people use Microsoft English
- Waste0
my pet peeve is when people use it's for the possessive instead of the contraction...
also "graduated college"
- vena0
4cy is right, and it's not a universally accepted style to never use the apostrophy in the case of a plural acronym. (nor are most stylistic conventions unversally accepted) in some style guides, the apostrophy is used to differentiate a plural acronym from possibly being considered a new acronym. the NYT has their one unique manual of style and have been using it for quite some time to much success.
if you were so concerned about the usage of the english language, i'd think you'd understand that the language itself scoffs at anyone attempting to make one single set of rules for usage. hell, the english speaking world can't even agree on spelling. so get off your high horse mister literacy :P
- CyBrainX0
No, I'm not on a high horse, nor am I ciriticizing style guides. Differing style guides do not allow for an obvious abuse of English diction or syntax. Apostrophes are not for plurals. Style guides or not. If my personal site used the word ain't consistently, I would be just as wrong.
- vena0
obviously you have your own style guide, but i think you're simply being difficult if you can't see the different between this and the apostrophy usage in "ain't."
- Peter0
Jesus christ. Gentlemens, write to the damn newspaper already.
- vena0
ahha, found it! i knew someone sent me something about this a while back. a quite from Neil Gaiman that fits quite well:
And I shrug, and look at the Apostrophe Protection Society site and remember, as an interested young man, attending a meeting of the Queen's English Society, which sounds very important, but which consisted of several people sitting in a chilly church hall somewhere in Sussex saying things to each other in a shocked voice like:
"I mean, he used anticipate to mean expect!"
"Well, that's not as bad as using hopefully to mean one hopes"
and so on, for several hours. Then there was tea and cakes.
(the context is an argument over why he prefers "FAQ's" over "FAQs," reader response, grammarbook.com's insistance that it's entirely optional, and him being fed up with the whole thing.)
- jpolk0
y'all guys are perty smart at talking...