Indulge an old bird and let me recall what I learnt at school.

 

When I say, "The budgies have sore feet", there is no apostrophe in budgies because it is a plural (more than one).

 

When I say, "The budgie's feet are sore", I use an apostrophe because I am talking about feet which belong to the budgie.

That's what I learnt too.

I also learnt that you should say the other person's name and I as well and not their name and me, eg. "Henry and I" not "Henry and me" but last year on 'Are you Smatter than a Fifth Grader' they had a question that proved me wrong.

indeed, i learnt that also, and how you are meant to say "I" instead of "Me" after you say the other persons name

I thought you put the apostrophe after the "s", ie: the budgies' feet

 

with Henry and I you just use whatever you'd use if you left off " Henry and"

 

Henry and I went to the shops = I went to the shops

 

Give it to Henry and me = give it to me

Edited May 22, 200915 yr by Hills

I thought you put the apostrophe after the "s", ie: the budgies' feet

 

Yes, you would, if you were talking about more than one budgie. The budgies' feet = feet belonging to more than one budgie.

The budgie's feet = feet of one budgie.

Edited January 15, 201015 yr by KAZ

its kind of confusing isn't it LOL

The Budgie's Feet can mean either the feet of one budgie or the feet of more then 1 budgie

I thought you put the apostrophe after the "s", ie: the budgies' feet

 

with Henry and I you just use whatever you'd use if you left off " Henry and"

 

Henry and I went to the shops = I went to the shops

 

Give it to Henry and me = give it to me

 

But then poor Henry doesn't get a mention at all

Poor Henry....

That's what I learnt too.

I also learnt that you should say the other person's name and I as well and not their name and me, eg. "Henry and I" not "Henry and me" but last year on 'Are you Smatter than a Fifth Grader' they had a question that proved me wrong.

 

What you learnt was correct. You say "Henry and I walked..."

 

BUT there is a grammar point that even a former Rhodes scholar such as a former ALP leader got wrong.

 

Example: They gave the pie to Henry and me."

 

 

This is correct. Why? They are the subject of the sentence (the main actors). When you are not the subject of the sentence, you are me.This is probably the point they made (badly) in the program you watched.

 

When you are the subject (the main actors) of the sentence as in "Henry and I walked..", you are I.

 

 

So, what does the I and Me business matter? Not a lot in my opinion; unless you are doing some formal writing. I think it is better to be colloquial and always say "me", than be a pompous *** (like so many of our politicians) saying "He gave it to Boggs and I" and being dead wrong.

I always get the plural of Attorney General wrong. For some stupid reason it's "Attorneys General" and don't get me started on "its" and "it's"!!

its kind of confusing isn't it LOLThe Budgie's Feet can mean either the feet of one budgie or the feet of more then 1 budgie

It's confusing if you put the apostrophe in the wrong place. The budgie's feet can only mean the feet of one budgie.It's all getting complicated. Plurals are so simple. They don't have apostrophes. So why put them in and muddle something simple?

I thought you put the apostrophe after the "s", ie: the budgies' feetwith Henry and I you just use whatever you'd use if you left off " Henry and"Henry and I went to the shops = I went to the shopsGive it to Henry and me = give it to me

But then poor Henry doesn't get a mention at all Poor Henry....

rofl. You are so right.

I always get the plural of Attorney General wrong. For some stupid reason it's "Attorneys General" and don't get me started on "its" and "it's"!!

I agree. Stay on the stuff with no apostrophes.

Thanks for clearing up me and I

I think Henry needs a group hug =

Thanks for clearing up me and I

You are welcome.

I think Henry needs a group hug =

How right you are. Poor, poor Henry.Why did they edit what I wrote about a politician being a pompous ***? It's not a rude word and I did not name anyone.

The worst use of an apostrophe I've ever seen was on a sign at a fruit shop, advertising:

 

Deliciou's Apples.

 

.Why did they edit what I wrote about a politician being a pompous ***? It's not a rude word and I did not name anyone.It means donkey, so there.

The worst use of an apostrophe I've ever seen was on a sign at a fruit shop, advertising:Deliciou's Apples.

OH NO!!. LOL They had got themselves into the contractions confusion which Hills did not want to go near.

The worst use of an apostrophe I've ever seen was on a sign at a fruit shop, advertising:

 

Deliciou's Apples.

 

 

 

AND... I think the edit of the word meaning donkey is because it may be used by members to mean other things.

Hmmm... so how would you reference something that belonged to 2 Attorneys General??

Deliciou did grow some nice tasting apples though!

Thanks for clearing up me and I

You are welcome.

 

Shouldn't that be "youse are welcome"

Yikes! Let me clear something up.

 

Some definitions:

Singular = one, plural = more than one

Possessive = belonging to

 

Singular: Budgie

Singular possessive: Budgie's feet

Plural: Budgies

Plural possessive: Budgies' feet

 

Stick with this rule: any noun ending in 's' should have the apostrophe after the s when you you're talking about a belonging.

Eg:

The horse, the horse's feet

The horses, the horses' feet

Also: Jess' book not Jess's book. You should not have a word that ends with "s's"

 

I hope that makes it easier to understand, or have I complicated it? Lol!

 

And some common ones:

They're = they are

Their = belongs to them

There = a place

 

You're = you are

Your = belongs to you

Edited May 22, 200915 yr by Chrysocome

AND... I think the edit of the word meaning donkey is because it may be used by members to mean other things.

Yes. Showing my age. Did not think of that. Being a pedant, I would have put an r and an e in it.

Hmmm... so how would you reference something that belonged to 2 Attorneys General??

The attorneys generals' hats. Yes?

Deliciou did grow some nice tasting apples though!

Did she ever! rofl. My budgies loved them.

Thanks for clearing up me and I

You are welcome.

Shouldn't that be "youse are welcome"

Isn't it, "Ewes are welcome"?

Edited May 22, 200915 yr by maesie

My favourite, uh, grammatical thing is group plurals. Where group is a way of making plurals singular eg "A group"

 

Example:

Singular: person

Singular plural: persons

Group: people

Group plural: peoples

 

Hair is also fun:

Singular: hair

Singular plural: hairs

Group: hair

Group plural: hair

 

If you think about it: adding an 's' to hair can make it smaller - hair, hairs.

 

I love the English language!

 

I also learnt something new the other day: In the US they don't use t form verbs. What I mean is, when we say:

Learnt, spoilt, leapt, spilt, earnt

They say...

Learned, spoiled, leaped, spilled, earned!

I always wondered about this! That would mean for us, learnt = verb, and learned = adjective (a learned person). But... burnt = adjective, burned = verb

Complicated, isn't it!

 

And one more fun grammatical rule I just remembered:

Practice = noun, practise = verb

In my medical practice, we let students practise on models

Edited May 22, 200915 yr by Chrysocome

Let's go back to the good old days where we grunt and when we draw a mammoth on the cave wall it means mammoth

Yikes! Let me clear something up. ...Well, I would agree with you the whole way except for the bit about Jess. Strictly speaking, I think you are right. However, to insist on the use of the apostrophe after Jess is, I think rather pedantic. We would probably say Jess's for the sake of clarity and so it is okay to write it.

Chrysocome, you are a woman after my own heart.

Haha, I don't insist on it myself. It's just a (British) grammatical rule that exists Something about the aesthetics of a word with "s's" in it. You are quite right about how we pronounce it that way.

 

Here's a fun one.

Weird is weird because it doesn't follow the rules: I before E, except after C.

 

Edited May 22, 200915 yr by Chrysocome