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Post by Twoddle on May 28, 2020 10:16:20 GMT
Bloody Hell, Verbivore, how long do you spend putting your clocks forward and back an hour each Spring and Autumn? Only six, so not long: the analog wall clock, the wristwatch, the desk clock, the bedside piece, and the two car clocks. The rest change automatically through a universal signal (wirelessly or over the mains power). When I started to read your reply I thought you meant, "Only six hours"!
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Post by Dave Miller on May 31, 2020 7:25:41 GMT
We've discussed before how some proper names, such as Land Rover Discovery, keep the same spelling when in the plural: two Land Rover Discoverys (not Discoveries).
Does it work in the opposite direction? This thought came to me when needing to write about just one of the sweets from a packet of Smarties. One Smartie?
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Post by Verbivore on May 31, 2020 8:22:39 GMT
I would assume so, Dave. (Do you eat the blue ones? LOL)
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Post by Little Jack Horner on May 31, 2020 16:02:22 GMT
When the Rosetta probe headed for its rendezvous with the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2004, it was intended to fly by several other members of the solar system and to send back information about them. The mission was largely successful and the spacecraft performed flybys ... er ... um ... flybies ... of those bodies.
So, what do we think? Flyby isn’t a proper noun nor is it a verb nor adjective nor anything but a straightforward common or garden noun. Most references to the events seem to prefer, as do I, “flybys”.
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Post by Verbivore on May 31, 2020 22:11:24 GMT
[...] So, what do we think? Flyby isn’t a proper noun nor is it a verb nor adjective nor anything but a straightforward common or garden noun. Most references to the events seem to prefer, as do I, “flybys”. I'd settle for flybys – if for no other reason than how it might sound. If it were flybies I'd be tempted to pronounce it "flybees". And just to complicate matters, credit-card companies and merchants use flybuys – which a cloggie would likely pronounce "flee-boice".
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Post by Dave Miller on Jun 1, 2020 5:27:22 GMT
I think it has to be “flybys” - on the basis that the adverb “by” doesn’t have a plural.
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 2, 2020 9:55:31 GMT
Fliesby? (I jest.)
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