English Majors: VERY Important!!!! Explain the correct plural of "Ferrari"...

No, it is not, because Ferrari is a proper noun and tifoso is not, even though people capitalize it.

 

What is the plural of Mercedes? Mercedeses?

 

As others have posted, "data" is the plural of "datum", so it drives me nuts when someone who should know better writes, "The data is inconclusive." I substitute "facts" to check usage, so in this case it's very obvious that, "The facts is inconclusive." is flat-out wrong.

Agree that confusing "your" and "you're" may well be tied with "it's and "its". It's always funny to read something like, "Your an idiot!" in a heated exchange.

 

(Circling back to the original topic) Mercedes's.

 

How about a data point?

 

NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

"Point" is obviously a noun in that instance, but could "data" actually be considered an adjective? "Point of data" maybe? Hell, I don't know...

 

some names don't have a plural version, perhaps a victim of linguistics in the English language where it can't be pronounced... not all languages use the "s" character to signify a plural or an apostrophe to show possessive...

e.g. fish is both singular and plural... use implies meaning

 

Yes and no.

I will only cite two examples.

My wife was her HS valedictorian. Straight A student. Cheerleader. Dove for the swim team. Played violin for the orchestra. Really worked hard for her A's. Went to Brown, got almost straight A's. dove for the swim team, was raising a kid for a family member who couldn't be bothered, and got a Job with the Feds end of her Junior year that paid for her senior year.

Our HS Valedictorian was also a jock, really superior athlete, got straight A's. I couldn't stand to be in a classroom with her because she was so damn competitive she'd try to beat you with the teacher for a better grade.

So, not all straight A students are dorks or geeks.

D

 

^ this!

As I have written to more than one on-line editor (respected newspapers and magazines), "It's 'its', NOT 'it's'"

 

According to the AP Stylebook, I believe it's permissible to use an apostrophe when taking the plural of terms that are a single letter, in order to avoid confusion. So the way you originally wrote your post is fine.

Check out the text on the Oakland A's players' caps for confirmation.

 

Data is plural. Unless you're talking about a Star Trek character.

The singular is datum, but the word is rarely used.

 

Like real journalism, editing is a lost art.

 

An entire thread dedicated to the pedantic inclinations of Ferrari owners.. this cements the stereotype for sure Written language serves many different purposes, from daily banter online, forum posts and the likes, to academic applications and art. Honestly, as long as people are able to make themselves understood without ambiguity I don't have a problem with alternative spelling, lingo, slang or botched grammar in daily written communication. If you understand it why does it matter? I can see how academics, authors and the majority of Ferrari owners could get their panties in a bunch over such triviliaties, but proper formal writing skills have absolutely no intrinsic value. It has academic value to people whose minds appreciate order and conformity, and those who rely on pinpoint accuracy without ambiguity, but whether we spell a number of Ferraris with or without an apostrophe is completely irrelevant to everyone but the most narrow minded doctrinarians of the world. Perhaps Ferrari is the Italian adaptation in plural of the Latin word "Ferarus", which means "wild"? In that case different linguistic rules would apply altogether. Having said that, there seems to be an epidemic affecting the spelling and pronounciation of "Women/Woman". For some reason it appears, from browsing the internet, that mankind by and large have abandoned the plural form altogether and now write "woman" exclusively and with a total disregard for the distinguishing properties of the two words. Does it matter? No. But it makes you wonder why it is so. Oh the joys of pedantics

 

does you think dat this iz so much harder to reed adn cmoprhend?

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm."

 

You misspelled "trivialities."

 

And smilies as punctuation? That's a new one for me.

 

Haha keep them coming, the cement is drying

 

I took you off ignore long enough to see what you had to say coming back from your ban.

But you just offer us another unbroken string of text full of misspelled words and lacking punctuation. Painful to read. How can you be understood if no one wants to read what you write?

I see you are also still going after Ferrari owners. Stereotyping us and also stating that the ability to clearly communicate in writing has no value?

At least you are a consistent troll, but please do stop baiting us.

I thought you were leaving and buying a Lambo so you could hang with non-pedantic types you seem to adore. That would be stereotyping Lambo owners too.

Cement doesn't "dry," it "cures," BTW.

Buh-bye and back on "ignore" for you.
Alden

 

We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot… would a pair be beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set is teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.

[An alternative version quotes the final couplet as:

And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I’ll not learn how ’til the day I die.]

by R.Lederer

 

While I'm on the pedantic side of things, I personally can't help it

 

If we're so pedantic horrible stereotypes, why on earth are you here with us?

Don't you have anything better to do? I mean, if you dislike us so much, hanging around here would be a huge waste of time it would seem.

 

Fortunately, this is often what trips up phishing emails and Nigerian scams.