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Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted December 26, 2016 20:44
I texted my daughter about the winner of the Christmas Cards in the Spector household:
quote:
Yours and Becca's cards were great - but, I am sorry, the Chen's card wins the Spector award! Hilarious!!!
Well, I got a snide text back, commenting on my "grammatical error," though not identifying it. I thought and thought - and then took this mystery to Shu, and we both (abashedly!) missed the apostrophe mistake. Shu said I should have written, "Becca's and your cards" (which still sounds odd to me so I haven't cleared that up!). However, we both missed that it should have been "Chens' card."

Can you believe, with all these apostrophe threads, I wrote "Chen's card?" Sheesh!

And - you should have seen their card! They inserted pictures of themselves into John Turnball's Declaration of Independence Painting, saying, "Couldn't resist dropping into John Turnbull's painting to consult!"
 
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Picture of BobHale
posted December 26, 2016 21:29Hide Post
Hmm. I also think it should be "Your and Becca's cards" or "Becca's and your"

Otherwise it would expand to Yours card and Becca's card.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale, December 27, 2016 03:23


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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<Proofreader>
posted December 27, 2016 11:56
Your card and Becca's were great.
 
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posted December 27, 2016 12:08Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Proofreader:
Your card and Becca's were great.


In my opinion, this one sounds best.
 
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posted December 27, 2016 12:11Hide Post
Actually, if your daughter and Becca sent out two separate cards (I don't know who is who in this scenario), I would say:

Both your card and Becca's were great.
 
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<Proofreader>
posted December 27, 2016 16:55
quote:
Both your card and Becca's were great.

Better, although t's truthiness just to make both feel good, IMO.
 
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Picture of BobHale
posted December 27, 2016 18:18Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by sattva:
quote:
Originally posted by Proofreader:
Your card and Becca's were great.


In my opinion, this one sounds best.


Perhaps, but it does make it sound a little like Becca was an afterthought to the message.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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<Proofreader>
posted December 27, 2016 19:29
Well, Becca isn't the favorite, after all.

I think she would only be subordinate if he was separated by commas.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
posted December 28, 2016 21:35Hide Post
Interesting analysis. Becca's (Rebecca, shortened for texts) and Catherine's (daughter to whom it was written) cards both held the same importance. Perhaps "Becca's and your card were..." (Bob's way) is best? It's just that "card" and "were" sound a little off.

I am wondering if the Chen's was an autocorrect. I wrote something similar today (Chens plural), and my iPhone immediately autocorrected it to "Chen's." I hope so! Wink
 
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Picture of BobHale
posted December 29, 2016 02:00Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Kalleh:
Interesting analysis. Becca's (Rebecca, shortened for texts) and Catherine's (daughter to whom it was written) cards both held the same importance. Perhaps "Becca's and your card were..." (Bob's way) is best? It's just that "card" and "were" sound a little off.

I am wondering if the Chen's was an autocorrect. I wrote something similar today (Chens plural), and my iPhone immediately autocorrected it to "Chen's." I hope so! Wink


Mine said "cards".


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
posted January 05, 2017 20:56Hide Post
Sometimes autocorrect can just drive me crazy! How do they come up with some of those ridiculous corrections?
 
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Picture of BobHale
posted January 05, 2017 22:06Hide Post
Did you see my Facebook post about wechat's autocorrect?

Here it is again for your amusement.

quote:
I think I've mentioned before that wechat (a Chinese messaging app) is a bit random in its correction of what it assumes are your mistakes. This one was a real belter.

I intended to type

"Just wondered if you had come across this beer."

I don't know what typing mistake I made but wechat decided that I meant
"Just woke Derek if you had come across this beer."

Now it's perfectly feasible that I mistyped the original message but in what Universe does the phrase "woke Derek" crop up often enough that it needs to be programmed into the system as a correction for ANYTHING?


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Picture of arnie
posted January 06, 2017 10:01Hide Post
Does Woolworth's still exist in the USA? I ask because over here they went bust during the recession and closed all their stores in 2008/9. Anyway, I was typing "Woolwich" into my iPhone yesterday and found it auto-corrected to Woolworth's.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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<Proofreader>
posted January 06, 2017 13:06
quote:
Does Woolworth's still exist in the USA?

One Woolworth's still exists in Bakersfield (?), CA but it's a thrift store. The UK chain closed in 2007 but some still remain in several European countries. The original Woolworth's changed focus and devolved into Foot Locker sporting goods. Nothing in the present company's inventory sells for a nickel or a dime.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
posted January 11, 2017 19:47Hide Post
Oh, yes, I remember those 5 and 10 cent stores! Now we have the Dollar Store.
 
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