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Post by Verbivore on May 15, 2021 2:57:36 GMT
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Post by Dave Miller on May 15, 2021 6:47:24 GMT
I think the Gerrman word is normally just schreibmaschine - “write machine”. Kugelkopfschreibmaschine is literally “ball head write machine”, or what we would call “golf ball typewriter” - those where all the characters are on a ball which tilts and spins (mechanically far more complicated to achieve, but allowing a quick change of typeface). I was amused, at school, to be taught that elektrischestrassenbahnwagen meant … tram.
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Post by Verbivore on May 17, 2021 22:20:23 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on May 18, 2021 0:17:26 GMT
Excellent, Vv. I like it. Thank you.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on May 18, 2021 1:39:49 GMT
Missing word. My son and my daughter are both in their late 40s so it is ridiculous to call them my children. So what are they? My granddaughters and grandsons are almost all also fully adult, so how should I refer to them? I don’t think grandkids really works either.
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Post by Verbivore on May 18, 2021 7:48:52 GMT
Missing word. My son and my daughter are both in their late 40s so it is ridiculous to call them my children. So what are they? Do you mean jointly/collectively, LJH? Hmmm … first-generation direct descendants? Offspring? My GenXers? For me it's simple: my sons (because those two are my only sprog; keeps it simpler). Both are in their mid-40s. My granddaughters and grandsons are almost all also fully adult, so how should I refer to them? I don’t think grandkids really works either. Second-generation direct descendants? My two grand-whatevers (boy and girl, almost teens) are so minor a part of my life, and I of theirs ( not sad, but true) that I've never needed to consider how to refer to them other than by name. I'd perhaps be more concerned to know their "pronouns" these days. That's become the Touchy Topic of the Times, it seems.
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Post by Twoddle on May 18, 2021 8:58:24 GMT
Missing word. My son and my daughter are both in their late 40s so it is ridiculous to call them my children. So what are they? My granddaughters and grandsons are almost all also fully adult, so how should I refer to them? I don’t think grandkids really works either.
I have the same problem. My daughter's in her early forties and my son's in his late thirties, and my wife's daughter and son are both in their mid-to-late forties. Calling them our "children" seems a bit daft, but "progeny" or "offspring" is rather formal or pretentious.
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Post by Dave Miller on May 18, 2021 9:47:15 GMT
Missing word. My son and my daughter are both in their late 40s so it is ridiculous to call them my children. So what are they? My granddaughters and grandsons are almost all also fully adult, so how should I refer to them? I don’t think grandkids really works either.
I suppose it’s slightly longer, but “sons and daughters” seems to work well. (Obviously, tweak the sexes and plurals to fit the individual case: son and daughters, daughters, sons, etc.) Grandsons and granddaughters gets even longer … but it works.
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Post by Verbivore on May 20, 2021 11:08:46 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on May 20, 2021 18:18:31 GMT
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Post by Verbivore on May 20, 2021 21:40:33 GMT
Thanks, LJH. I, too, have registered.
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Post by Verbivore on May 20, 2021 21:42:27 GMT
How to deal with the possessive plural of species?
Singular: species – possessive species'
Plural: species – possessive ??
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Post by Dave Miller on May 21, 2021 5:48:31 GMT
How to deal with the possessive plural of species? Singular: species – possessive species'Plural: species – possessive ??Firstly, Vv, why do you choose the singular version as species’ - rather than species’s? Wales’s capital is Cardiff; Les’s house is there. Things quickly get ugly with species, though. I think I’d use an “of” construction!
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Post by Verbivore on May 21, 2021 8:52:24 GMT
Dave: The form species' (as poss. sing.) was in an article on ABC News and set me to wondering. It's something that has occasionally bothered me, with species being both singular and plural – confusing. Would not the singular possessive be species's and the plural poss. be species'? (Specie is, of course, something different.)
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Post by Verbivore on May 23, 2021 11:08:59 GMT
Okay, I get that this fellow was a rugby league Immortal (uppercase I), but the headline on its own did make me look twice. Rugby League Immortal Bob Fulton dies
Ah, the science–art that is headline writing!
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