Thread starters, there's no ' in RAs!!!!

You are making reference to a multitude of RA members and this does not require an apostrophe! It should be RAs not RA's!!!!!!

 

RA's is the possessive form of a (singular) RA. RAs means plural, more than one RA. This should not be difficult. However, their does not seem to be two much attention paid too this fact in all it's glory and all should be more careful with there posts and thread title's.

 

Ironically you mixed up 'their' and 'there' in your post quibbling about grammar

Personally I tend to try to get my spelling and grammar right, but it doesn't really bother me when others don't, especially online. Many people post quickly and don't have time to proofread. After all, this is an online forum, not a company press report or graduation thesis...

There will also be non-native English users. I don't think it would be fair to hold them to a strict standard, particularly as there aren't many languages I would be comfortable posting correctly in.

Unless you think we need Milepoint language police?

 

Am now hoping that your entire post is not a cleverly executed parody. I think it probably is. Damn damn damn

 

Yes indeed. I was trying to make as many misteaks as possible in one centance.

 

It's not grammatically incorrect to write "RA's" to indicate plurality. Google around for acronyms and initialization with apostrophes. Plenty of old style guides indicate that the acronym is capitalized while the 's' is lowercase to indicate plural, not possessive intent. This is going to have a lot to do with where and when one was educated in basic grammar. Modern times - with the huge impact of acronyms in the internet age - say it should be as you suggest. RAs for plural, RA's for possessive. But then there are some corporate acronyms that intentionally have some lowercase letters mixed in causing even more confusion!

And if you want to get really anal-retentive, we should be writing R.A.'s or R.A.s instead of leaving out the periods!

 

Not to mention using "two" instead of "too"... ("their does not seem to bemuch attention paid too this fact")

I suppose those of us who learned ENGLISH English versus AMERICAN English tend to be a bit more particular about such things. Not to mention, the definitive style guides for editors and publishers do not reference the apostrophe except as a possessive in the case of nouns, or as a contraction.

 

Whatever. Half the planet can't even spell aluminum correctly.

 

I'm one of those who wrote "RA's", English isn't my mother of tongue and in Norwegian I'm pretty anal about how I express myself. For a strange reason I'm not the same when it comes to English. On the other hand I would NEVER ask people to write correct Norwegian at an online forum, no matter how much it irritated me, as long as they didn't write "sms-language" which I really hate reading. After all, it all boils down to how I express myself whether it's making a fool of myself for writing incorrect or for correcting other for mistakes... (Sorry, I couldn't resist...)

Xxx.

 

many many exclamation points, perhaps go one step further and contact each thread starter who made this mistake and let them know your deep concern.

 

Wnt me 2 txt u teh propr acronm gide 4 txtng - 2011 edtn?

 

While we're at it, could you parse "Canadi>n" for me? And, how do I pronounce it- I move my lips while I read, and since I don't know how to pronounce your handle I'm tripping over your posts.

 

I grew up in Australia, and the english we were fed from mother England is in many ways very different to US english, after eleven years here in the US I still often find myself speaking English english, Grade one, v first grade, you and I v me and you, and the list goes on it's hard to shake, colloquialisms are a different matter altogether and much more easily dealt with. ......don't disagree RAs plural, and RA's possessive, the RA's trip, the RA's stay.

 

Ok - me & you isn't correct in any standard English variant. That's just misuse and it annoys me. That and anyone who says "I/We seen" instead of "I/We saw" or "I/We have seen" - I can't watch an episode of COPS without getting angry at poorly educated idiots because of that one.

As for colloquialisms and idioms - one of my favorites in the world is from Indian English - prepone. In a sense the antonym of postpone, prepone means to move something up on a schedule. I read that more than ever since I spend a lot of time emailing with a team in Hyderabad.

 

us dem and dose guys don't got no problem wit "me & you", so I don't know what youse beefing about.

 

Can't all y'all just get along?

 

New MP rule: pig Latin only.

 

It might be silly, but one of my favorite things in the world, is listening to how folks in other parts of the world speak English.

I love the accents, I love the different and colorful idioms, and I love figuring out what a phrase means. So, to all of you from Australia, Canada, The UK, South Africa, India, and even the southern U.S.... I still love listening to you, even if you're not very good with apostrophes.

 

Okay TennisPro, appreciate constructive criticism.....spell it out, where's the problem with the apostrophes

 

So, I pulled the Chicago Manual of Style off my shelf and refreshed myself on several points.

First - what we have here is an initialism, not an acronym. Acronyms are pronouced as a word - NATO is an acronym. Initialisms are not - BBC is an initialism. RA is is initialism, unless you say "RAH"

The rules are that you pluralize by adding the s without an apostrophe - as in RAs.
But - when it includes punctuation or a mixure of upper and lower case letters you add an apostrophe for clarity as in M.A.'s or PhD.'s

So in the example at hand the correct usage is either RAs or R.A.'s.

 

Wow, while I'm ALL for more postings here on MP, this IMHO is just a waste of space

 

try the ones where people count backwards, or think up three or seven word stories!!!

No offence to those contributors, wish i had the time, is that done to drive post numbers or is brain exercise or just simply too much time? I'm more into the points and miles when i have time, although really enjoying the photos of NZ and Italy being submitted, really very impressive.

I think RAs for plural and RA's for possession, not so big on the old style full stops or periods as suggested, may be technically correct but i thought the new world order had dropped a lot of the unnecessary ......

 

as lnog as peolpe udnresnatd etactohher, who creas the olny iprmotent tihng is the cnotent.

 

love your avatar, have been a big fan of Angus and the lads since a boy growing up in Aus....still get a lot of rotation on the US Rock stations

 

got to see them again last year, Angus still rocks! still playing simple groovy feelgood songs about drinking, rock and women after 40 years, you gotta love them