Is not the ignorance of the masses a scary thing? Stick to what we know is correct and damn the mob! Have a good day. John B -----Original Message----- From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Bob Trussler Sent: Friday, 27 April 2007 10:25 AM To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: Re: Particular past tense "a sufficiently large number of the ignorant can always turn the tide." The tide seems to be turning on apostrophes. Where I am currently working, a lot of the staff are writing TV'S, and CD'S in the like, new style. What is worrying me is that they are also applying the apostrophe to all plurals. So we now get the PC'S are on the table's, and the plug's are in the socket's. Like Malcolm Turnbull, I don't quite understand this democracy thing. Bob T On 4/27/07, Daryl Colquhoun < atw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Oh dear. Sorry about that mishap with the previous post. Michael: >Ah, yes. The power of democracy. Never mind the facts; a sufficiently large number of the ignorant can always turn the tide. But at least that large number (based on my sample of 5) have the good grace to be talking about something other than the subject of this discussion, which I now propose to subvert. It seems the "present perfect continuous", according to the websites, is what we get when we deploy that bane of English learners, the present participle, thus, *"The driver has been losing control of his truck and he's been ending up in a creek". Which is plainly not possible here. It works in something like "I've been studying this question all night". And it's different from the plain present perfect; compare "I've washed my car as long as I've owned it" with the somewhat silly "I've been washing my car as long as I've owned it". I take Michael's point about perfect and continuous being a dichotomy, but I've always called this construction with the present participle "continuous". So this isn't really perfect? Because it's still happening? (In which case I suppose the websites are just simplifying.) ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ************************************************** Disclaimer : The contents of this e-mail including any attachments are intended only for the person or entity to which this e-mail is addressed. If you are not, or believe you may not be, the intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Tenix does not warrant nor guarantee that this email communication is free from errors, virus, interception or interference.