Free Software Foundation Europe on Microsoft fines

Posted Jul 13, 2006 16:04 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (guest, #15091)
In reply to: Free Software Foundation Europe on Microsoft fines by nix
Parent article: Free Software Foundation Europe on Microsoft fines

(There's also a missing apostrophe, but native English speakers are now worse at apostrophisation than Europeans are, so I'll not harp on that ;)

What apostrophe? If you are referring to the one in "document its own software", no, it does not have an apostrophe. You are right that English speakers are bad at apostrophisation: after all, Greve is not English and he wrote it right :D

Free Software Foundation Europe on Microsoft fines

Posted Jul 13, 2006 16:47 UTC (Thu) by lysse (guest, #3190) [Link] (1 responses)

He probably meant the one missing from "Microsofts numbers".

Missing apostrophe mystery solved

Posted Jul 13, 2006 17:03 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Aww, you are right, sorry.

Free Software Foundation Europe on Microsoft fines

Posted Jul 14, 2006 8:25 UTC (Fri) by MortFurd (guest, #9389) [Link] (1 responses)

Don't bet on Europeans being any better with apostrophes.

I saw this this morning at a gas station that also sells snacks: Donut's (the only word on the sign, obviously meant to be the plural of Donut.)

This isn't an isolated example, either. It is very common to see this kind of thing. Note also: It not proper German to make the possesive form of a word with "apostrophe S."

Check out "Fools's Apostrophe" and some of the links there:
http://www.deppenapostroph.de/

Free Software Foundation Europe on Microsoft fines

Posted Jul 15, 2006 10:17 UTC (Sat) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

I've seen one piece of tourist-directed English shopfront signage in the Alsace area which possessivised English by adding `es'. For a moment I hoped they were putting up signs in early Middle English, but alas no. It wouldn't have been correct German in that instance either. :)