by: bethem

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 23:39:06 +0000

My pet hate (is that too strong-a-word?) - ‘peeve’ then - is the abuse of the apostrophe. The keyboard default mark (the key at the far right of the A-L line), is for a single quote, and U/C for double quote mark…to a typist. A good typographer is more prone to utilise the correct keystroke. An apostrophe is a 9 shape (if you can visualize that mark when made by hand, as I was taught to do in primary school) ho-hum, get on with it, you are thinking… OK! An apostrophe is a 9-shape, a 6 or 66 is an open quotation mark, a 9 or 99 is a close quotation mark. So, a typographical perfectionist (simply, someone who cares) will utilise the following keystrokes to achieve their aim:
shift/option (is the 9 shape) apostrophe

option ] = ‘ (open quote)
shift/option ] gets ‘ (close quote)
option [ = � (open double quote)
shift/option [ = � (close double quote)

I was always told the apostrophe used for the abbreviation of 1970s is a 9 shape - ’70s, where the apostrophe is is to be placed where the characters are missing, ie before the number, if you get my drift.

by: Lion Tamer

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:52:59 +0000

The wardrobe of the English language, like the wardrobe of its creators, is somewhat grey and utilitarian. We should definitely give it a trinny & susannah style makeover and introduce some funky punctuation. The scando’s[!] do this pretty well, but what about some punctuation that also denoted whether the noun was desirable or not. herdy’s mazda being ‘herdy [love heart] s mazda’. or if the noun was rubbish it could have a love heart with a dagger through it or a trash can or a collingwood jersey.

Alternatively, to avoid confusion over plurals, we could copy the indonesian language. rather than adding an ’s’ - which could also signify the possessive - the indo#s just say the word twice. dogs being ‘dog dog’.

ok, back to the big top.

bye bye

Comments on: Possessives. Can we do it better?

by: bethem

by: Lion Tamer