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[Digit]

It wasn't laziness J, simply being sarcastic, after all you understood what I wrote, which you claim is all that matters, that makes the second time it's gone over your head. :lol:
What's wrong with it? Nothing, if you believe in the Lazarus affect/effect? And that's not a mistake either.

Roy.

 

[bugbear]

I think judgement of accuracy of grammar and spelling is one of those relative terms.

Anyone who is more accurate in grammar and spelling than me is a mindless pedant.

Anyone who is less accurate in grammar and spelling than me is a stupid chav.

c.f. driving:

Anyone who drives faster than me is a horsepower fixated psychopath.

Anyone who drives slower than me is an over cautious dodderer.

Other examples can be found ;-)

BugBear

 

[Digit]

I take it that that is a dictionary definition BB? :lol:

Roy.

 

[Jacob]

It wasn't laziness J, simply being sarcastic, after all you understood what I wrote, which you claim is all that matters, that makes the second time it's gone over your head. :lol:
What's wrong with it? Nothing, if you believe in the Lazarus affect/effect? And that's not a mistake either.

Roy.

Deliberate mistake? :lol: :lol: :lol:
What's wrong with a post mortem in the afternoon?
It's "effect" BTW. "Affect" is a verb (most of the time) "to affect" etc.

 

[Digit]

No Jacob, a gamble, I gambled that you would pull me up and ignore Sky's spelling mistake, and I was correct.
Thus the Lazarus Effect would Affect Lazarus, ok?
BTW the plural of Post Mortem is Posts Mortem.
Don't be lazy, use a dictionary! :twisted:

Roy.

 

[theartfulbodger]

I'm reluctant to ask but should the word police have had a capital P?

 

[Jacob]

......
BTW the plural of Post Mortem is Posts Mortem.......

No it isn't.

 

[Digit]

I think it reasonable to ask why Sky can't either employ people who understand standard English or hire a decent proof reader.

Roy.

 

[Digit]

It was when I was at school Jacob, if it has been changed, so be it!

Roy.

 

[Jacob]

It was when I was at school Jacob, if it has been changed, so be it!

Roy.

So you blame the school for getting it wrong?

Anyway that's two mistakes Digit! I don't think you should pontificate on about spelling so much, if you can't do it yourself! :lol: :lol:
Not that it matters of course - don't let it put you off attempting to write, we are all very tolerant here (with certain exceptions!)

 

[Digit]

No I don't 'blame' the school Jacob, you're moving the goal posts again, Post Mortems is a corruption of the Latin.
Post Mortems mean after deaths, how many do you get? Unless you accept the Lazarus effect?
Many things change in the language, so 'blame' is hardly an appropriate word, eg, I was taught Zeebra, I was taught stress as a result of strain etc, I was taught Courts Marshial if you have moved away from original usuage I will just have to catch up.

As pointed out here.....

Examples:

He now has two mothers-in-law. (plural of mother-in-law)

They were visited by the Knights Templar. (plural of Knight Templar)

It was a sight to see four lieutenant generals fight it out at the table.
(plural of lieutenant general)

Jerry had attended over a dozen courts-martial.
(plural of court-martial / also, see third example below)
No Principal Word?
When there is no obvious principal word, add s (or es) to the end of the compound.

Forget-me-nots make a wonderful present. (plural of forget-me-not)

Pack two toothbrushes. (plural of toothbrush)

Jerry had attended over a dozen court-martials.
(There is ambiguity about the principal word in court-martial. Therefore,
through common usage of both, courts-martial and court-martials are
acceptable.)

...common usage has changed things, so I repeat, there is no 'blame' in my comments.
Nether was there two spelling mistakes, so there

Roy.

 

[kirkpoore1]

BTW the plural of Post Mortem is Posts Mortem.

Roy.

Hmmm. I thought it was "autopsies".

And here I've been wondering all this time about which of these examples were spelling errors and which were British English.

Kirk
Not from around here...

 

[Digit]

Latin as Latin is one thing but when it moves into common usage things change. Post Mortems would in a literal sense mean After Deaths! Which of course is rubbish.
English has about 3 times as many words an any other language apparently, many copied from other tongues. A common example here is Cul-de-Sac, for a dead end road. Look that up in French!

Roy.

 

[Jacob]

No I don't 'blame' the school Jacob, you're moving the goal posts again, Post Mortems is a corruption of the Latin.

So is "posts mortem", but also nonsense, like making the plural of afterbirth "afters birth"

Post Mortems meanS after deaths, how many do you get? Unless you accept the Lazarus effect?
Many things change in the language, so 'blame' is hardly an appropriate word, eg, I was taught Zeebra, I was taught stress as a result of strain etc, I was taught Courts Marshial Martial if you have moved away from original usuage usage I will just have to catch up.

Courts Martial is normal. No it hasn't changed - you were just wrong about posts mortem from the beginning

As pointed out here.....

By your logic two "tooth brushes" would be (one?) "teeth brush" :lol:

See spelling corrections in red. 5/10, must try harder.

 

[Alf]

The one that annoys me is people saying "an hotel" as I was taught that dropping ones H's was very bad form.

Oddly enough "an 'otel" was how it used to be said amongst the well-to-do until comparatively recently. (Pre-war, or thereabouts)

A hour and an half?

It depends on whether the h is stressed or not (it is in half, it is not in hour).

If uncertain, the speaker could opt for 90 minutes instead...

Interesting - I'd have gone for courts martial every time. Like gins and tonic. Both bits are important, but the court - or the gin - are the really vital bit.

 

[Jacob]

Yes gin and tonics don't have enough gin in them IMHO.

 

[Digit]

So is "posts mortem", but also nonsense,

So is Cul-de-Sac in English usage, but it won't alter what I was taught will it?

By your logic two "tooth brushes" would be "teeth brush"

And by your logic two Sheep would be Sheeps!
And I think 5 out of 10's a bit low!

Roy.

 

[bugbear]

Are Digit and Jacob having a "battle royal" about unusual plurals?

:lol: :lol: :lol:

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

Several mouse holes = one mice hole.

 

[theartfulbodger]

Once a word from another language enters the English language as an adopted English word then it seems that
(single object)s = plural

(post mortem)s

(gin and tonic)s

(cul de sac)s

..irrespective of the rules in the original language.


There's always exceptions which is what makes the English language more fun, and I assume maddeningly difficult for foreigners to learn. Trades Union springs to mind...and I think the plural of Court Martial is Courts Martial, but in English probably should be Martial Court?

Just my take on it.