Wordplay, Take Two

[Canadave]

1. How do YOU commonly spell the following word?
A. Dietitian
B. Dietician

B

2. Do you usually pronounce the first "L" in the word "invulnerable"?

Yes.

3. When pronouncing "formidable", do you usually stress the first or second syllable?

Second.

4. Do you pronounce the "T" in either of the following words: "often" and "soften"?

5. When forming the possessive version of a word ending in "S", do you just add an apostrophe or an apostrophe and another "S"?

If it's a plural, then just an apostrophe. If it's singular, then apostrophe and s.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

1. How do YOU commonly spell the following word?
A. Dietitian
B. Dietician

Dietician.

2. Do you usually pronounce the first "L" in the word "invulnerable"?

Of course.

3. When pronouncing "formidable", do you usually stress the first or second syllable?

The first, unless I'm speaking French, in which case I stress the third.

4. Do you pronounce the "T" in either of the following words: "often" and "soften"?

No, I don't.

5. When forming the possessive version of a word ending in "S", do you just add an apostrophe or an apostrophe and another "S"?

Apostrophe only.

Apostrophes are the point of contention with my nitpick about the english language. On the internet, I often see people using " 's " to signify a plural. I hate reading things like "I bought the pizza's, or "I have two dog's". It bugs me to no end...and it's starting to move into normal writing as well. The abundance of people using it and other internet/text slang like lol and omg or w/, or b/c in English essays is astounding!

Use of apostrophe-S to indicate a plural has been a common error since long before the internet or home computers came along.

Yes, it's usually called the "greengrocer's apostrophe," because it's most often seen on signs outside shops and markets that say things like "Apple's, 89 cents/pound." Ugh.

The year I chaired Toronto Trek, one of my gifts from the committee was a copy of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", probably because i tend to nitpick grammar and punctuation when editing the programme book listings for the con. It's a brilliant book, and more people need to read it.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

1. Dietician
2. Yes
3. Second syllable
4. No to both
5. Apostrophe only

I agree with these.