Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 576 posts

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#101

Post by bee_rider »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #2

> The Deppenapostroph is not to be confused with the English greengrocer’s apostrophe, when an apostrophe before an ‘s’ is mistakenly used to form the plural of a noun (“a kilo of potato’s”). Grocer's apostrophes annoy me, along with words like "advices" (advice is an abstract noun and can't be plural, like "happiness") and "learnings" (use "lessons" instead).

I’ve never heard “advices” (in the US). Maybe it is a continental Europe thing? They may have surpassed even us, at the art of inventing new words and spellings to annoy the English.

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#102

Post by greenicon »

almostnormal wrote: post #72

Speaking of the English language influencing German, I want my Erdbeermarmelade back. I don't care that english marmalde cannot be made of strawberries.

It seems the EU laws for this have changed last year [1], to allow Erdbeermarmelade again.

1: I was only able to find something in German: https://www.wiwo.de/politik/ausland/realsatire-aus-bruessel-...

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#105

Post by jjk166 »

Reminds me of the story:

> A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich, overheard the following:

> Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"

> Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."

> Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?"

> Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war"

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#106

Post by bee_rider »

ben_w wrote: post #42
pjot wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As is “codes” - I hear this often from non-native colleagues

With regard to source code(s), I hear it exclusively from scientists, regardless of nationality. None of the coders I've worked with (and I'm in Berlin) have put the s on the end of code. Quite a few will use "he" to describe inanimate objects, though: "I spilled coffee on the table and now he is wet", that kind of thing. (This is still better than my German, which is embarassing given how long I've been here)

I think it makes sense, like a scientist might think of their codes as discrete things, because one code was written for each experiment. The work-product is the experiment, the codes are just little things that make it happen.

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#107

Post by mattlondon »

nomilk wrote: post #66

I knew of a building named Water's Edge, but spelled "Waters Edge". The absence of a possessive apostrophe was bothersome but I realised there's a case for sacrificing correctness for things like ease of communication and how the words look. An insight from Oscar Wilde: > Mr. Noel, in one of his essays, speaks with much severity of those who prefer sound to sense in poetry. No doubt, this is a very wicked thing to do…

But Waters Edge is totally fine if they mean "by the edge of the waters" and not "the edge belongs to the water".

But hey, there are no rules or logic in English so have at it!

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#108

Post by ktosobcy »

jjk166 wrote: post #105

Reminds me of the story: > A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich, overheard the following: > Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?" > Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English." > Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?" > Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British…

As a Pole I'm also fairly annoyed by having to use English daily ;)

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#110

Post by abeppu »

maxnoe wrote: post #94
OptionOfT wrote: post #76

Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, lists “Eva’s Blumenladen” (Eva’s Flower Shop) and “Peter’s Taverne” (Peter’s Tavern) as usable alternatives, though “Eva’s Brille” (“Eva’s glasses”) remains incorrect. Why is 'Eva's Brille incorrect', but 'Eva's Blumenladen' ok?

Because, according to the new rule, it's only permitted in proper names "Eva's Blumenladen" is the proper name of the shop, what is put on the sign above the door. "Evas Brille" is just Eva's glasses.

... but even before the rule change, in virtue of being a proper name, if the proprietor calls it "Eva's Blumenladen", and it's marked as such, wasn't it proper usage to refer to it that way? If I call my English business, "Joes Cafe" (intentionally not using an apostrophe), wouldn't it be incorrect for people to refer to it in writing as "Joe's Cafe"?
Post reply on HN