Why Martin Lewis’ is correct grammar! Blog discussion

mrbadexample

alared wrote: »

The whole standard of English and grammar has well and truly gone "down the swannie".

You're not wrong. It has gone down the Suwannee; a reference to when slaves were sold on the Suwannee river in the US to work on the plantations. :whistle:

MBE, pedant.

MSE_Martin

Just a slight note of defence of those who write it.

They are firstly almost all very polite.

Then many feel they're being helpful - not realising that we've had tortuous thoughts about the issue. Ie its ofen "hi, just wondering if you realised..." rather than "I'd like to complain". Though there are a few.

withabix

Flickering_Ember wrote: »

It still does; if you're referring to the one on Ranelagh St, Liverpool

I thought they'd all gone. The last one I saw seemed to be a bit run down and was more of a 'collection-of-shops-in-the-same-building' (and did look a bit like a market!) rather than a true Department Store.

EDIT: I see they've been been bust twice since 1991 and the Liverpool store is the only one left.

http://www.lewissliverpool.co.uk/

(Link for the purposes of the 's argument!)

Errata

:rotfl:

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Just a slight note of defence of those who write it.

They are firstly almost all very polite.

Then many feel they're being helpful - not realising that we've had tortuous thoughts about the issue. Ie its ofen "hi, just wondering if you realised..." rather than "I'd like to complain". Though there are a few.

You now have a perfect opportunity to change it to "Proprietors: Martin Lewis and Wife" :rotfl:

ThinkingOfLinking

withabix wrote: »

I thought they'd all gone. The last one I saw seemed to be a bit run down and was more of a 'collection-of-shops-in-the-same-building' (and did look a bit like a market!) rather than a true Department Store.

EDIT: I see they've been been bust twice since 1991 and the Liverpool store is the only one left.

http://www.lewissliverpool.co.uk/

(Link for the purposes of the 's argument!)

It is run down and pretty rubbish, to be honest. Same goes for the St Johns shopping centre just over the road. However, Paul McCartney popped into Lewis's last year...

jeanmd

The grammar rule set by Oxford is that if a word ends in S, you use -', just like Lewis', to show that the article after the word is belonging to Mr Lewis.

This grammar rule changes, however, in America. This is probably why there is so much confusion over it, (just like people are no longer sure as to whether the word is lazer or laser, sulfur or sulphur, e.t.c.) In America, you put the apostrophe how you would pronounce the word, so it would be "Martin Lewis's moneysavingexpert.com" but "Los Angeles' traffic is..."

Going by English(UK) grammar, though, Lewis' would be correct grammar. If you do get the alternative as a correction on a word processor or website, it's highly likely that your spellchecker is set to English(US) and not English(UK)

-- jeanmd's daughter.

jeanmd

alared wrote: »

The whole standard of English and grammar has well and truly gone "down the swannie".

Could this be anything to do with "texting" or the continuous government interference in the education system?

Only today, I read that the old adage "i before e except after c" is to be no longer taught.

I`m afraid that today`s pupils are not as well educated as people were in the 50/60`s.
People of that era can at least compose a letter and count without the use of a calculator.

Again, this is jeanmd's daughter.

This is the biggest load of horseradish I think I've ever seen typed on a computer screen, and I see a lot of rubbish whilst perusing the internet, don't you mind.

Simply because the nation has become lazy and prefer to watch computer games than read a book, or indeed prefer to text over a phone rather than write a letter, does not mean that the education system is failing. It means that society is failing. Unfortunate, but true.

We as a whole no longer have the will, or thirst, to learn new things. We think "Oh, I can add up, that's enough" or "Hey, I can read as well as my 12 year old daughter, that's fine by me. It isn't like I need to be able to understand anything higher than that, anyway, unless I want to be an editor or something". We are a content nation, who don't mind being mediocre, and that is the problem, not the way the education system works.

It is true that, in most schools, the syllabus taught is aimed solely at exam grades and not at the actual knowledge a student it supposed to gain. However, in order to achieve the exam grades it is important to note that a lot of exams have an English element in, such as Business Studies, R.E, and a good few others, where extra points can be achieved by use of good English. Furthermore, without the fundamental knowledge, one cannot simply gain a B and be happy about it. One must work, despite the media claiming otherwise.

I speak as a girl who left school this year. In fact, I had my last exam about 3 days ago, so I'm quite sure I know how the education system works, and I'm also pretty sure that my grasp of the influence "texting" and whatnot has had upon this generation is solid. Yet, still, I blame none of it. I spend a lot of time on the internet, and I own a mobile phone. I have also been subjected to this horrible, child-eating education system you blame for the lack of grammar in today's society. I think my grammar's good, though, don't you? See, it's all a matter of choice. I want to learn. I want to be able to spell words like onomatopoeia and bureaucratic without having to pull up google or look in a dictionary (though to be frank I don't think many people of my age even own a dictionary.) The reason my generation can't spell, can't add up, and don't seem bothered by it, is not that they haven't been taught how to. It's that they haven't listened when teachers have tried, mostly in vain, to convince them that education is, in fact, important.

nzseries1

John_Gray wrote: »

If a sentence or phrase looks rong, the best solution is invariably to reorder it.

How about MoneySaving Expert.com - founded and run by Martin Lewis :T?

But it doesn't look wrong (nor rong), not to me anyway!
In my opinion, the best solution is to leave it as it is, and leave the poorly educated to figure it out for themselves!

toots66

I was taught that if the noun ended in an s then only an apostrophe was required. As Martin and others have said, s's just looks wrong. The giant Lewis's sign overlooking Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester really wound me up. Pubs with Banks's outside make me not want to drink there.

Saying that so-called 'classical' names such as Jesus do not need an s after the apostrophe but other names do is pure confusion. But that's the English language for you!

TRT

Many of the so-called 'rules' of spelling were made up by crafty typesetters who realised that, being paid by the letter, they could slip in extras and claim it was the King's English. They were the experts and woe betide anyone who disagreed. Talk about maximising your income... They truly deserve a mention on this site!

And on the Christ front, how many times have you seen the word Jesu' used instead of Jesus? That just adds to the confusion!