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Re: It's its

Posted: September 21st, 2018, 11:29 am
by bungeejumper
"The defendant said the judge was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

"The defendant, said the judge, was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."


Who says punctuation doesn't matter?

BJ

Re: It's its

Posted: September 21st, 2018, 11:35 am
by UncleEbenezer
swill453 wrote:I think predictive text, and the dumb trusting of it, is a lot to blame.
Scott.

I think your expectation fails. This kind of illiteracy was widespread online before we ever had predictive text. Indeed, before most of us ever had mobile phones.

What I find mildly amusing is that it's always native English speakers whose literacy is so poor. Foreigners, including those who visibly struggle with English and make lots of other mistakes, always seem to do much better.
bungeejumper wrote:Who says punctuation doesn't matter?

My sympathies are with the defendant on that one. Lock up the judge.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 21st, 2018, 1:16 pm
by swill453
UncleEbenezer wrote:I think your expectation fails.

I made no expectation, so am comfortable in the lack of failure.

Scott.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 8:49 am
by Stonge
bungeejumper wrote:"The defendant said the judge was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

"The defendant, said the judge, was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."


Who says punctuation doesn't matter?

BJ


No

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 8:55 am
by vrdiver
bungeejumper wrote:Who says punctuation doesn't matter?

Did they? If so, Y?

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 6:41 pm
by jfgw
vrdiver wrote:I wonder what they'll say?


Tut-tut, "I wonder what they'll say" is a statement, not a question. It shouldn't have a question mark after it.

Julian F. G. W.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 7:10 pm
by marronier
If you don`t write " The man broke hi`s leg " , you don`t write " The dog broke it`s leg".

You use " it`s " as you use " can`t ,don`t , shouldn`t, wouldn`t ,couldn`t " to indicate missing letters.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 7:19 pm
by melonfool
marronier wrote:If you don`t write " The man broke hi`s leg " , you don`t write " The dog broke it`s leg".

You use " it`s " as you use " can`t ,don`t , shouldn`t, wouldn`t ,couldn`t " to indicate missing letters.


Why are you telling us? Are you mansplaining?

Mel

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 8:48 pm
by swill453
melonfool wrote:
marronier wrote:If you don`t write " The man broke hi`s leg " , you don`t write " The dog broke it`s leg".

You use " it`s " as you use " can`t ,don`t , shouldn`t, wouldn`t ,couldn`t " to indicate missing letters.


Why are you telling us? Are you mansplaining?

Mel

And using the wrong punctuation too. (The back tick being just as wrong as the single quote in common use.)

Scott

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 8:58 pm
by Lootman
melonfool wrote:I also once, when in a restaurant that also did take away, got fed up of waiting to be served, so I got my mobile phone and phoned the restaurant, asked if they did take away, they said yes, so I asked if it would be OK if they delivered it to the table by the window........a waiter appeared quite quickly.

All well and good, but it is one of my pet peeves when I make the effort to show up in person to buy or order something, and then the sales assistant who is serving me decides that he/she will first answer the phone to someone who made less effort than me.

Apparently some service staff are penalised if they don't answer the phone after, say, four rings. But what about the in-person customer who is thereby delayed?

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 9:47 pm
by melonfool
Lootman wrote:
melonfool wrote:I also once, when in a restaurant that also did take away, got fed up of waiting to be served, so I got my mobile phone and phoned the restaurant, asked if they did take away, they said yes, so I asked if it would be OK if they delivered it to the table by the window........a waiter appeared quite quickly.

All well and good, but it is one of my pet peeves when I make the effort to show up in person to buy or order something, and then the sales assistant who is serving me decides that he/she will first answer the phone to someone who made less effort than me.

Apparently some service staff are penalised if they don't answer the phone after, say, four rings. But what about the in-person customer who is thereby delayed?


It was about twenty years ago. There were eight of us, so we didn't want to go somewhere else. And I *was* the "in person customer". Maybe you need to read it again?

Mel

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 9:51 pm
by Lootman
melonfool wrote:
Lootman wrote:
melonfool wrote:I also once, when in a restaurant that also did take away, got fed up of waiting to be served, so I got my mobile phone and phoned the restaurant, asked if they did take away, they said yes, so I asked if it would be OK if they delivered it to the table by the window........a waiter appeared quite quickly.

All well and good, but it is one of my pet peeves when I make the effort to show up in person to buy or order something, and then the sales assistant who is serving me decides that he/she will first answer the phone to someone who made less effort than me.

Apparently some service staff are penalised if they don't answer the phone after, say, four rings. But what about the in-person customer who is thereby delayed?

It was about twenty years ago. There were eight of us, so we didn't want to go somewhere else. And I *was* the "in person customer". Maybe you need to read it again?

No, I got it the first time. The point stands. I admire the way you finessed the system and I might do that myself as well.

But there were those who had been waiting longer than you who perhaps had a more legitimate claim on those extra resources.

For some reason service workers respond better to phone calls but I don't understand why. I'd never run a business that way.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 10:05 pm
by melonfool
You can't possibly know there were people waiting longer or that the staff were incentivised to answer the phone

Not every anecdote needs to be over analysed.

Mel

Re: It's its

Posted: September 22nd, 2018, 10:14 pm
by Lootman
melonfool wrote:You can't possibly know there were people waiting longer

You wrote: "I was about 4 people back from the front of the queue and it was starting to get silly it was taking so long."

Evidently there were people waiting longer than you.

In that same situation, having summoned extra resources, I would have directed them to first serve the "4 people" ahead of me in the queue who had been waiting longer than me.

melonfool wrote:You can't possibly know the staff were incentivised to answer the phone

Not in that case, but I once confronted a sales person who interrupted me to answer the phone, and she told me that she had a "4 ring" imperative.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 23rd, 2018, 1:55 pm
by PinkDalek
Lootman wrote:
melonfool wrote:You can't possibly know there were people waiting longer

You wrote: "I was about 4 people back from the front of the queue and it was starting to get silly it was taking so long."

Evidently there were people waiting longer than you. ...


In the Tesco queue. I think the "About four [non uniformed] people arrived very quickly looking really flustered!" might have managed to have dealt with the 4 people at around the same time, given there was also "The woman serving on the desk". We also don't know if any of those 4 in the queue had queue barged ahead of the OP. A common occurrence nowadays.

In the restaurant. "You can't possibly know there were people waiting longer", unless you were there, knew the OP back then or you were the waiter who attended and you recall the incident.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 23rd, 2018, 2:19 pm
by stevensfo
"The defendant, said the judge, was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."


But why the speech-marks? Actually, I think this should be:

'The defendant, said the judge, was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life.'

or with speech-marks:

"The defendant", said the judge, "was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."


Steve
PS In my defence I have to state that my English teacher, apart from introducing me to 'Fowler's Modern English Usage', was extremely pretty! :-)

Re: It's its

Posted: September 23rd, 2018, 4:21 pm
by swill453
stevensfo wrote:or with speech-marks:

"The defendant", said the judge, "was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

I disagree. The tenses are wrong.

Either:

"The defendant", said the judge, "is an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

or:

"The defendant", said the judge, "was an entrenched liar who should have been put away for the rest of his life."

Scott.

Re: It's its

Posted: September 23rd, 2018, 5:25 pm
by melonfool
Indeed, I was right, Lootman needed to reread my post

:roll:

Mel

Re: It's its

Posted: September 23rd, 2018, 5:45 pm
by stevensfo
swill453 wrote:
stevensfo wrote:or with speech-marks:

"The defendant", said the judge, "was an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

I disagree. The tenses are wrong.

Either:

"The defendant", said the judge, "is an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

or:

"The defendant", said the judge, "was an entrenched liar who should have been put away for the rest of his life."

Scott.


No. The defendant was a liar many years ago. Now he is a reformed character and no longer lies, BUT has just been convicted of a serious crime years ago when he was still a liar. So my version is correct. He 'was' an entrenched liar and 'should be put away'.

Yes, I agree, he 'should have been' put away.

Steve

PS The use of 'entrenched' in this context is disrespectful to all those who died in WW1 and I feel offended. To which tabloid should I complain?

Re: It's its

Posted: September 23rd, 2018, 6:01 pm
by swill453
stevensfo wrote:
swill453 wrote:Either:

"The defendant", said the judge, "is an entrenched liar who should be put away for the rest of his life."

or:

"The defendant", said the judge, "was an entrenched liar who should have been put away for the rest of his life."


No. The defendant was a liar many years ago. Now he is a reformed character and no longer lies, BUT has just been convicted of a serious crime years ago when he was still a liar. So my version is correct. He 'was' an entrenched liar and 'should be put away'.

Yes, I agree, he 'should have been' put away.

Lol. So your version isn't correct...

Scott.