[OT] "its" vs. "it's"

[Sabine Dinis Blochberger]

In English, the word "its" is the third-person singular neutral genitive. The
word "it's" is a contraction for "it is".

Programming is an art of precision.

The plural of "person" is "people". Thank you, good night *bows*.

 

[Nigel Wade]

Hal Rosser said something like:


Bah. My english gripe involves the mispronounciation of Realtor and Realty.
It's reel-tor and reel-tee people, not reel-i-tor and reel-i-tee.

My English gripe is Americans claiming they speak English. The word realtor
doesn't exist in English. There is the word reality, which has no meaning to an
estate agent ;-)

 

[Bent C Dalager]

My point was that precision is important to programming, not that "its" or
"it's" belongs in a program.

Carelessness in small matters, like "its" vs. "it's", is not a good habit of
mind for programmers. Attention to detail is. Not every detail is a
programming detail, but the exercise of the mind carries over.

But then again, thinking outside the box and throwing conservatism to
the winds (so to speak) can be equally useful. Chances are that within
a few decades, "its" will have both the meanings of today's "its" and
"it's" anyway, so why fret the issue? Let the young'uns define their
own culture and don't be a sourpuss that they change some of the
things that you had gotten used to. Yes, I too cringe a bit when I see
"it's" being used for "its". But the fact is, language evolves over
time. This is a good thing - even if it does cause some local vexation
every now and then.

You must have realized that and are just being inflammatory.

Well, I do recognize pedantry hour when it comes on, and I can
pedanticate with the best of them!

Cheers,
Bent D

 

[Bent C Dalager]

Bah. My english gripe involves the mispronounciation of Realtor and Realty.
It's reel-tor and reel-tee people, not reel-i-tor and reel-i-tee.

I always wondered a bit about all the people who seem to think that
saying "nukular" in public should be a hanging offense - are
"tolerance of dialects" and "respect for other people's culture"
purely Norwegian concepts?

Cheers,
Bent D

 

[Lew]

My English gripe is Americans claiming they speak English. The word realtor
doesn't exist in English. There is the word reality, which has no meaning to an
estate agent ;-)

It's "Realtor", a proper noun, and it's a registered trademark, so, yes, it
exists in English, every dialect.

 

[Lew]

The plural of "person" is "people". Thank you, good night *bows*.

Also "persons".

2 plural : human beings, persons
—often used in compounds instead of persons <salespeople>

<http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/people>

 

[Thomas Kellerer]

Lew, 24.10.2007 16:56:

In English, the word "its" is the third-person singular neutral
genitive. The word "it's" is a contraction for "it is".

I find it even more irritating if the plural is constructed using an
apostrophe, like e.g. "a lot of table's" or "the BLOB's are stored in.."

 

[Nigel Wade]

It's "Realtor", a proper noun, and it's a registered trademark, so, yes, it
exists in English, every dialect.

A registered trade mark is not a word.

 

[Gordon Beaton]

I find it even more irritating if the plural is constructed using an
apostrophe, like e.g. "a lot of table's" or "the BLOB's are stored
in.."

Some plurals require it:

Cross your t's and dot your i's.
The no's have it.

"your welcome"
(my what?)

/gordon

--

 

[Lew]

A registered trade mark is not a word.
O-o-o-Kaaay.

'I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't--
till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for
you!"'

'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice
objected.

'When _I_ use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful
tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor
less.'

 

[Lew]

You might want to take a look at
<http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/word>

 

[Thomas G. Marshall]

Nigel Wade said something like:

My English gripe is Americans claiming they speak English. The word
realtor doesn't exist in English. There is the word reality, which
has no meaning to an estate agent ;-)

Fine, confine my comments to /realty/ then.
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/realty

However, and this bugs me, apparently according to MW, reel-eh-tee is now
listed, though behind a division symbol, whatever that means. My MW (book)
does not have that, so it must be a common usage thing.

Oh well. Such things happen. I'll continue to gripe about /realty/

Though, I still am a little peaved that "orientate" seems to have lost its
"usually considered substandard" attribute, but I noticed that about 15
years ago or so, so this is a long peave...

 

[Thomas G. Marshall]

Thomas G. Marshall said something like:

....[rip]...

However, and this bugs me, apparently according to MW, reel-eh-tee is

Strike that. I got that one confused with Realtor. Too much caffeine
already this morning...


....[rip]...

 

[Thomas G. Marshall]

Bent C Dalager said something like:

Thomas G. Marshall


I always wondered a bit about all the people who seem to think that
saying "nukular" in public should be a hanging offense - are
"tolerance of dialects" and "respect for other people's culture"
purely Norwegian concepts?

I'm half norwegian. So perhaps that's why I advocate caning for such
mistakes, not hanging.

Though, {author cringes}, I try and try to not say nukular and it is nearly
impossible. The best I can do is to stop before I say it and force out the
noo-clee-ar, or correct myself after the fact.

 

[Wojtek]

Lew wrote :

Lew wrote :

Well I tried that, but the compiler threw a fit:

public function boolean it'sOn()
{
return true;
}

Did you miss the part that said, "n English"?

No, I did not. But I WAS trying to be funny. Obviously to you it was
not funny.

I know of NO language that allows punctuation within variable names or
key words.

Lew, we have had this sort of encounter before, where I make a joke and
it is not funny to you, where you take it literally. I will endeavour
not to try to amuse you in the future.

 

[Wojtek]

Thomas G. Marshall wrote :

Bah. My english gripe involves the mispronounciation of Realtor and Realty.
It's reel-tor and reel-tee people, not reel-i-tor and reel-i-tee.

Radio announcers saying "Ave", or "Veg", or generally mangling the
language.

There should be a broadcasting law which FORCES people to use proper
grammar. Especially advertisers, who seem to think that making up
"cutsy" words sells their products.

 

[Lew]

Lew, we have had this sort of encounter before, where I make a joke and
it is not funny to you, where you take it literally. I will endeavour
not to try to amuse you in the future.

Um, oops. Sorry.

Please do keep trying to amuse me. I will factor in the humor factor in
future. I am a fan, Wojtek.

 

[Wildemar Wildenburger]

I always wondered a bit about all the people who seem to think that
saying "nukular" in public should be a hanging offense - are
"tolerance of dialects" and "respect for other people's culture"
purely Norwegian concepts?

Aren't those more like Norwegian necessities?

Seriously though, "nukular" stems from "nucleus" so I'm all for
retaining that connection. At least when you actually talk about stuff
concerning the nuclei of atoms.

I can however stomach the word "nukular" in non-scientific contexts
relating to radioactivity (by a detour via the "verb" "to nuke"),
because there no conceptual connection to a nucleus is needed.

/W

 

[Bent C Dalager]

I know of NO language that allows punctuation within variable names or
key words.

OpenOffice Basic apparantly supports whitespace in variable names, if
you enclose the whole thing in square brackets:

Dim [i have whitespace] As Integer

You now have an integer variable called "i have whitespace".

Also, since Java supports Unicode symbol names, it may be possible to
find some valid Unicode symbols that at least /look like/ they are
punctuation

Cheers,
Bent D

 

[Wildemar Wildenburger]

The plural of "person" is "people". Thank you, good night *bows*.

Yeah, that's what I was told in English class as well.

However "people" is just a "conceptual" plural, used when the identities
of individual members of the group don't play a role and you refer to
the group rather than its members.

I guess
/W