Grammar question?

Subject: Grammar question?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, "Moshe Kruger (AllWrite)" <moshe -dot- kruger -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:14:44 -0400

Moshe Kruger wondered: <<Apostix (an imaginary name) is very similar
(especially the last three letters) to the real name of one of my
clients. What should be the genitive (possessive) form of the name?>>

You're overthinking this: Apostix's.

Pretty much any English word can be turned into a possessive by adding
the apostrophe-s. You can even do that with words that end in "s",
though by convention, we usually don't. Some believe that a possessive
can only be done for living things (or even more exclusively, for
humans), but that's simply incorrect. "The dog's paws" is not only
more idiomatic than "the paws of the dog", it's also shorter (ditto
for "the world's problems" and its inverse).

Note that if you find the x's awkward, it's simple to avoid the
problem by judicious rewriting once you establish the context
(Apostix): "the company's solutions include", "our/these/the
aforementioned solutions", "solutions offered by Apostix", etc. Most
readers will appreciate not being marketed over the head with the
company name every sentence, so use pronouns and these other revisions
more frequently than the company name.

<<What is certain is that an apostrophe must be added. It is untenable
to write: Apostix real-time solutions.>>

It's not at all untenable if you preface the phrase with an article
("the Apostix solutions", "an Apostix solution"). In English, any noun
can be used adjectivally in this way. Trust me on this... it's not
just a Geoff thing. <g>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effective Onscreen Editing:
http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals.
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


Follow-Ups:

References:
Grammar question: From: Moshe Kruger (AllWrite)

Previous by Author: At what point can I pass the buck?
Next by Author: Is there a more succinct way to say this?
Previous by Thread: Re: Grammar question
Next by Thread: RE: Grammar question?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads