Apostrophes: everything you ever wanted to know, just about.

Yesterday, 16 August, was International Apostrophe Day, and the cue for lots of apostrophe articles and Twitter posts.

The following quick guide to when and how to use an apostrophe was taken from an article in The Guardian by David Marsh: If you can’t use an apostrophe, you don’t know your shit.

How to use an apostrophe

To indicate missing letters
I’d [I would] rather buy my own beer if you won’t [will not] put your hand in your pocket.
Many pronouns are routinely abbreviated and need an apostrophe – it’s (it is), who’s (who is), they’re (they are), you’re (you are) and so on. The way to avoid confusing them with the apostrophe-less equivalents its, whose, their or there, and your is to do a quick check of the meaning: in the sentence “there are many people who count their blessings even when they’re poor”, “they’re” is clearly a contraction of “they are” so needs an apostrophe.

To indicate a possessive
His dad’s quirky grammar book was top of Oliver’s Christmas list.
But note that the possessive its, like other possessive pronouns such as hers, ours, yours and theirs, does not have an apostrophe: “Tesco doesn’t know its onions.” To confuse you further, one’s does (“one knows one’s onions”), but you wouldn’t use that unless you wanted to sound pompous.
The term “possessive” is misleading; “association” or “relationship” would be more helpful: David might be said to possess “David’s book”, but hardly “David’s favourite football team”, although David needs an apostrophe in both cases.
If a word ends in S, an apostrophe and second S are added to make it possessive if that is how it is pronounced: James’s book, but waiters’ tips. If a plural does not end in S, you add apostrophe+S: children’s games, people’s republic, women’s rights, etc.
Phrases such as butcher’s hook, collector’s item, cow’s milk, goat’s cheese and writer’s cramp are best treated as singular. We either don’t know or don’t care whether one cow, or many, are involved.

To indicate time or quantity
This book represents a year’s thought, squeezed into a month’s actual work.
Apostrophes are used in phrases such as two days’ time and 12 years’ jail, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in three weeks old or nine months pregnant, where the time period (three weeks) modifies an adjective (old). You can test this by trying the singular: one day’s time, but one month pregnant.

The Guardian article was in turn taken from David’s book For Who the Bell Tolls: One Man’s Quest for Grammatical Perfection, to be published by Guardian Faber in the autumn. One for language lovers’ Christmas lists, I reckon.

How not to use an apostrophe

Andrea Mann compiled a slide show for The Huffington Post illustrating just how badly people get their apostrophes wrong: 22 Disastrous Apostrophe Fails For International Apostrophe Day.

And here’s Matthew Inman at The Oatmeal’s take on the apostrophe in comic form (also available as a poster).

The story of the apostrophe

Lastly, if you’re looking for a more academic analysis of the apostrophe, check out The Story of the Apostrophe by Christina Cavella and Robin A. Kernodle (in pdf format), a paper which traces

the history of the apostrophe, examining the purpose(s) for which the apostrophe has been utilized in the past as well as presenting its current use. An overview of contemporary rules of usage is then included, along with specific examples of apostrophe misuse and a recommendation on how to teach apostrophe usage to non-native speakers of English. Finally, an attempt is made to predict the apostrophe’s future.

A future which, sadly, looks bleak, according to the authors:

The apostrophe’s troubled past points to a bleak future, as its functions are becoming less and less clear for many writers today. If younger generations continue to use writing as a medium for representing fleeting speech, the apostrophe might eventually be lost forever.

Have you any apostrophe stories or photos?

Other posts you might like:

Punctuation botheration (1)

Punctuation botheration (2)

Dot-dot-dot (1): how to type an ellipsis

Dot-dot-dot (2): when to type an ellipsis

By Marian Dougan

Get me to a bookery!

The Joy of Books, by Type Books in Toronto, has got me itching to go book-shopping. And to jump on a plane to Toronto.

By Marian Dougan

Ba(nne)d words: the GOV.UK style guide

I love a good style guide. And I applaud anyone encouraging the use of clear English. But the GOV.UK style guide, produced by the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service (GDS) for the GOV.UK website (the new portal bringing together all, or most, of the UK’s government websites), is really bugging me. More specifically, the part on plain English (mandatory for all GOV.UK websites) is bugging me.

The GOV.UK style guide urges people writing for the site to:

Use plain English. Don’t use formal or long words when easy or short ones will do. Use ‘buy’ instead of ‘purchase’, ‘help’ instead of ‘assist’, ‘about’ instead of ‘approximately’ and ‘like’ instead of ‘such as’.

We also lose trust from our users if we write government ‘buzzwords’ and jargon. Often, these words are too general and vague and can lead to misinterpretation or empty, meaningless text.

Fair enough.

Ba(nne)d words

But here’s the list of the “buzzwords and jargon” that the guide says we can do without:

  • agenda (unless it is for a meeting)
  • advancing
  • collaborate (use ‘working with’)
  • combating
  • commit/pledge (we need to be more specific – we’re either doing something or we’re not)
  • countering
  • deliver (pizzas, post and services are delivered – not abstract concepts like ‘improvements’ or ‘priorities’)
  • deploy (unless it is military or software)
  • dialogue (we speak to people)
  • disincentivise (and incentivise)
  • empower
  • facilitate (instead, say something specific about how you are helping)
  • focusing
  • foster (unless it is children)
  • impact (as a verb)
  • initiate
  • key (unless it unlocks something. A subject/thing isn’t ‘key’ – it’s probably ‘important’)
  • land (as a verb. Only use if you are talking about aircraft)
  • leverage (unless in the financial sense)
  • liaise
  • overarching
  • progress (as a verb – what are you actually doing?)
  • promote (unless you are talking about an ad campaign or some other marketing promotion)
  • robust
  • slimming down (processes don’t diet – we are probably removing x amount of paperwork, etc)
  • streamline
  • strengthening (unless it’s strengthening bridges or other structures)
  • tackling (unless it is rugby, football or some other sport)
  • transforming (what are you actually doing to change it?)
  • utilise

Some of these choices I have no quarrel with: overarching, empower, progress (as a verb), for example. And I understand that the site and the language it uses need to be accessible to people of all reading levels, and those who aren’t native English-speakers.

But liaise? Commit/pledge? Focusing? Foster? Streamline? Tackling? Transforming? Is the GDS telling us these words are jargon? Buzzwords? They’re kidding, surely. And why, I wonder, is “going forward” not on the list?

They’re not even applying their own rules: the GDS website describes the service as “a new team within Cabinet Office tasked with transforming government digital services”. Their blog tells us that the GDS team has released “a new version of the home page, which is pretty key”, is working on “exemplar delivery”, and will be working “with the departments to deliver [projects]”. Where’s the pizza?

And here’s the head of the UK Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake, in a blog post on staff learning and development:

Whilst a lot of the responsibility for personal development lies with individual civil servants, managers have a key responsibility as well. This is why I am asking managers to put a particular focus on key skills and the Capabilities Plan when they do their Mid Year Reviews. [my emphasis]

It’s not just the random (to my eyes) selection of banned words I find so annoying, or the fact that the folk who produced the list themselves use them so liberally. I use a lot of these words myself in my work:  tackle, focus, key, foster…

What bugs me is the lack of guidance – which is surely what a style guide is supposed to provide. If the GDS  want to ban words like liaise or combating, then they should suggest alternatives. And tell us why the banned words are so wrong. It’s not as if they’re monstrosities newly coined by management gurus intent on murdering the language.

To be continued.

Other posts you might like:

Nouning and verbing: an ask too far?

Making sense of legalese. Not.

Words that set our teeth on edge

By Marian Dougan

 

The name game (2): bilingual baby names

One of the problems bilingual families face when choosing their babies’ names is finding something that’s easy to pronounce in both parents’ countries and languages and for both sets of relatives.

We didn’t follow that rule when our first child, a boy, was born. We were living in Rome at the time but for me there was no question: he’d be called Harry, after my Dad and my little brother (who died at 4 months and who has always been called “wee Harry” in our family). So Harry it was.

Or “Err-ee” as our Italian family calls him, with equal emphasis on both syllables. Why is it, by the way, that so many Italians pronounce the letter “a” as “e” when they’re speaking English? Too many old-school BBC types writing pronunciation guides for English language courses?

When I was expecting my second baby the list of possible girls’ names included Hope and Ruth. But we realised that single-syllable names wouldn’t work in Italy, while Hope presented the additional problem of the “H” and Ruth that of the “-th” ending. But I still think “Hope” is a wonderful name for a girl. Rebecca was another option, but a Jewish-Italian friend advised us against that, and Ruth too.

In the end we chose Olivia: a lovely name in itself, and thankfully easy for the family in Puglia to pronounce.

If you’re interested in names, and indeed if you’re expecting a baby yourself and are stuck for inspiration, Wikipedia’s got a fascinating list of the most popular names in the various regions of the world, in some cases broken down not just geographically but by religion too.

What about you: did you encounter any difficulties choosing your children’s names? Or does your own name cause you problems?

Other posts you might like:

What’s in a name: spelling “Gaddafi”

English-Italian blues

The name game (1): George Alexander Louis

By Marian Dougan

 

 

 

The name game (1): Prince George Alexander Louis

Wee Prince George is one week old today. I dug out my baby-name bible, “Choose Your Baby’s Name” by Rosalind Fergusson, first published in 1987 but which I bought in 1992 (no prizes for guessing why). Here’s what the royal names mean.

George: from the Greek georgos, “tiller of the soil” or “farmer”. Also, of course, the patron saint of England.

Alexander: from Greek, meaning “defender of men” [and women too, we hope].

Louis: from the Old German name Chlodovech, the meaning of which is generally interpreted as “famous warrior”.

Not a bad combination for a future king: taking care of the nation’s land while defending its people. And – for the latter purpose only, we hope –, being good on the battlefield too.

William and Kate no doubt had plenty to issues to consider in their choice of names, but at least they didn’t have to deal with those encountered by bilingual families. About which, more later.

Other posts you might like:

A social networking rant. Tell us who you are, people!

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath-water. Or, go easy on the decluttering

Sometimes you just don’t need words…

By Marian Dougan

A marketing lesson from George (no, not that one)

Two British institutions were in the media this week: the monarchy, with the birth of Prince George of Cambridge; and the Church of England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s support for credit unions and his challenge to payday loan companies.

George-the-Prince-and-Asda.jpgAnd two organisations were quick to exploit the marketing opportunities these events presented. One was the Asda supermarket chain, with this advert (left) for its George of Asda clothing line.

The other was Wonga, the payday loan company named (but apparently not shamed) by the Archbishop. Wonga was quick to respond to criticism of its exorbitant interest rates with an ad featuring its “Ten Commitments” and stating that “Credit unions have an important role to play too and we welcome debate around the most customer-friendly and responsible ways to meet people’s needs”.

Given that George was high on the list of possible royal names, I reckon Asda had their campaign ready and waiting. Wonga, however, was pretty quick off the mark with its damage-limitation response.

A marketing lesson for small businesses

It strikes me that there’s a marketing lesson here for small businesses. Is there a newsletter, blog-post or even a tweet that we could prepare in advance for some forthcoming event?

Translators, for example, could prepare material to coincide with their “language countries'” national days, festivals or feast days. Or a post featuring electoral terminology or procedures, say, to coincide with elections in your country.

Have you ever produced an event-related post or newsletter that tied in nicely with your business? Let us know in the comments!

Other posts you might like:

GIGO… the brand

The Wrong Way to name a car: international marketing blunders

Marketing? Do you homework

By Marian Dougan

Hard times bring new words

The New York Times has published an interesting article on the new words and terms being used by Europe’s citizens as a result of the economic crisis.

Some of the terms are lifted directly from English. Take “spreaddite acuta”, or acute spreaditis, used by the Italian media to describe Italy’s bond-yield problems. Or “downgradare”, referring to credit-rating downgrades by agencies like Standard & Poors.

Here’s the audio version of some of the new terms, used in context.

One depressing observation by the New York Times is that:

Europe’s crisis has gone on so long that it is defining a generation, which has been given names like the “Ni-Nis” in Spain for the legions of young people who are neither studying nor working.

“I’m sadly all too familiar with the Ni-Nis because I’ve had to cope with one at home,” said Carmen Blanco, 43 and unemployed, referring to her 20-year-old daughter, who dropped out of high school and has been living with her. The expression, Ms. Blanco said, “really makes clear this situation of nothingness and hopelessness.” [my emphasis]

Here in the UK we have the term “NEET“, referring to young people not in education, employment or training. But that pre-dates our current economic troubles.

The crisis has also brought words and expressions previously used only by economists into common usage. Here in the UK, who’d have thought before 2008 that “quantitative easing” would be tripping so readily off our tongues?

Other posts you might like:

English words the world likes…

…and the words the world just can’t abide

Faffing around: frequently added frequentatives 

By Marian Dougan

Cracow Translation Days

If you’re enjoying the lovely summer weather we’re having here in (most of) the UK, then maybe a translation conference is the last thing on your mind. But, come September, a few days of workshops and presentations in a beautiful setting with great company (translators do love a get-together!) will be just the ticket to get us geared up for the autumn.

So check out the Cracow Translation Days, taking place from 5 to 8 September in the beautiful setting of the Benedictine abbey of Tyniec, 13 km southwest of Cracow (whose old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

I’ll be giving one of the presentations (on educational outreach and promoting language learning) but don’t let that put you off – there’ll be lots of other speakers: Ralf Lemster, Siegfried Armbruster, Katarzyna Slobodzian-Taylor, John Moran, Anne Diamantidis, Chris Durban, Jerzy Czopik, Nick Rosenthal, Marta Stelmaszak, Sabine Dievenkorn, Siegfried Armbruster and Stefan Gentz (apologies if I missed anyone out).

Not to mention a social programme that includes a trip to a salt mine!

You can register here and follow Cracow Translation Days on Twitter (hash-tag #Cracow2013), Facebook and Xing (the German version of LinkedIn).

By Marian Dougan

St. Jerome: a good role model for translators?

Kinetic sculpture of Saint Jerome, by Michael Landy,2012: Saints Alive, a new exhibition at the National Gallery in London, features “large-scale kinetic sculptures by Michael Landy that bring a contemporary twist to the lives of the saints”. The saints on display include St. Jerome, renowned for his translation of the Bible and the patron saint of translators.

St. Jerome (borrowed from a painting by Cosimo Tura from 1470) is shown hitting himself continuously on the chest with a chunk of rock, as he was said to have done when seeking forgiveness for his sins.

Beating yourself up over fees?

On what might seem a different topic (but read on…), here are excerpts from two articles on free-lancing and pricing by Walt Kania at The Freelancery: No more self-inflicted discounts, and Writers Worth: A Dirty Little Secret About Pricing:

I catch myself doing this from time to time. And I always want to slap myself.

It’s what Mike Monteiro of Mule Design calls ‘negotiating on behalf of the client.’

Which means, when wrestling with an estimate or a quote or a proposal, we end up finding all sorts of reasons to lower the fee. I was a master at this.

[…]

If the client beefs and tries to beat down the fee, that’s one thing. From there, you get to decide yes or no. That’s your call.

But don’t beat yourself up first. Even if it feels the safer way out.

What do you think, translators (and small-business owners)? Who’s the better role model: St. Jerome, or Walt?

Credits and information:

Michael Landy, Saint Jerome, 2012 – Duerckheim Collection
© Michael Landy, courtesy of the Thomas Dane Gallery, London / Photo: The National Gallery, London

With thanks to Corinne McKay for pointing out the Walt Kania articles.

The Saints Alive exhibition runs until 24 November 2013 at the National Gallery in London.

By Marian Dougan

Didn’t make it to the ITI conference? Check out these snapshots

A very quick post – a few links to blogs and videos, essentially – for those of you who didn’t make it to the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) conference in Gatwick in May and are curious to know what everyone got up to.

Here are some snapshots:

Reflections on the ITI Conference, by Megan Onions

Highlights from the ITI conference, by Catherine Christaki (aka @LinguaGreca)

ITI Conference 2013 london – the key for success by Josecarlos

The Singing Translators (and interpreters!)

The Conferencing Translators (and interpreters!)

And last, but certainly not least, two masterworks by the inimitable Alison Hughes, the Translators’ Poet Laureate:

Nice to meet you! and 2013 ITI Conference – were you there?

With thanks to Megan Onions of Speech Marks Translation, whose idea I borrowed (stole?) for this post – sorry Megan!

Any posts or reports on the conference that we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments!

By Marian Dougan