Originally posted by Eternium

Also, can we talk about people who put a comma before a conjunction? I see people all the time on here say things like "Applause, Drunk In Love, and Shake It Off are garbage" when they mean "Applause, Drunk In Love and Shake It Off are garbage." A comma before a conjunction is the same thing as a semi-colon.
They are incorrect. Think of it this way:

Spears - singular. In the English language, a last name is often used as a nickname for someone. "Spears scored another #1 debut."

Spears's - singular possessive. "This is Britney Spears's dog."

Spearses - plural. "If you go to the trailer park, you can see the forgotten Spearses."

Spears' - plural possessive. "These are the Spears' 33 teeth with 32 of them belonging to Britney."

English would be really ****ed if we made the singular possessive and plural possessive the exact same.

Originally posted by Eternium

Also, can we talk about people who put a comma before a conjunction? I see people all the time on here say things like "Applause, Drunk In Love, and Shake It Off are garbage" when they mean "Applause, Drunk In Love and Shake It Off are garbage." A comma before a conjunction is the same thing as a semi-colon.

Originally posted by Nemo

Originally posted by Eternium

Also, can we talk about people who put a comma before a conjunction? I see people all the time on here say things like "Applause, Drunk In Love, and Shake It Off are garbage" when they mean "Applause, Drunk In Love and Shake It Off are garbage." A comma before a conjunction is the same thing as a semi-colon.
They are incorrect. Think of it this way:

Spears - singular. In the English language, a last name is often used as a nickname for someone. "Spears scored another #1 debut."

Spears's - singular possessive. "This is Britney Spears's dog."

Spearses - plural. "If you go to the trailer park, you can see the forgotten Spearses."

Spears' - plural possessive. "These are the Spears' 33 teeth with 32 of them belonging to Britney."

English would be really ****ed if we made the singular possessive and plural possessive the exact same.

Originally posted by Vespertine

Oh my god.

You are spreading so much misinformation. Please stop.



This is not at ALL true. As Sazare has pointed out, it's called an oxford comma, and it's perfectly acceptable (and is often useful in eliminating ambiguity). You also clearly don't know how to use a semicolon.

A semicolon is used to join two related independent clauses, like this:

"I hate Adele; her music is an assault on my ears."

OR to help break up lists whose items involve commas, like this:

"I have lived in Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and Trenton, New Jersey."
"My favorite singers are Björk, an Icelandic electronic artist; Taylor Swift, an American ex-country artist; and Louis Tomlinson, an experimental artist who descended from heaven."





Actually, both Spears' and Spears's are acceptable forms of the singular possessive, as long as you are consistent in usage. I'd even argue that many style guides advocate the former since it's less awkward to say.

Originally posted by Eternium

Can we also talk about forming the possessive of a name that ends in "s?" MTV, Billboard, the New York Times, etc. always say things like "Britney Spears' " and Bruno Mars' " which are both dead wrong and the plural possessive form. In English, we are supposed to put an apostrophe and an "s" even on words that end with "s." "Britney Spears's" is the proper way to for the possessive of her name.
Yassss. It should be a warnable offense.
Close. "An" is only used when a word starts with a vowel sound. I see ATRL saying "a hour" and making mistakes like that all the time

None of this is true People say "should've" here.

Originally posted by Vespertine

Oh my god.

You are spreading so much misinformation. Please stop.



This is not at ALL true. As Sazare has pointed out, it's called an oxford comma, and it's perfectly acceptable (and is often useful in eliminating ambiguity). You also clearly don't know how to use a semicolon.

A semicolon is used to join two related independent clauses, like this:

"I hate Adele; her music is an assault on my ears."

OR to help break up lists whose items involve commas, like this:

"I have lived in Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and Trenton, New Jersey."
"My favorite singers are Björk, an Icelandic electronic artist; Taylor Swift, an American ex-country artist; and Louis Tomlinson, an experimental artist who descended from heaven."





Actually, both Spears' and Spears's are acceptable forms of the singular possessive, as long as you are consistent in usage. I'd even argue that many style guides advocate the former since it's less awkward to say.