TehBorken wrote:
Jolly Green Giant wrote: "Oops" is normally written with 2 o's, except when it is spelled "ooops", in which case it is written with 3 o's.
Not when I write it. <img src="/forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/14.gif"
As long as we're nitpicking, when you specify a single letter it's normally enclosed in a pair of single quotes, like this: normally written with 2 'o's, except whe... The way you wrote it is the possessive form which is incorrect, as alphabetic characters can't legally own anything. Also, in that context numbers are normally spelled out, so your text should have read: "Oops" is normally written with two 'o's, except when it is spelled "ooops", in which case it is written with three 'o's. (Full Disclosure: I've been a Technical Writer for Boeing, Microsoft, and numerous other large, stupid companies. I normally follow the <a href="vny!://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/chicago.html">Chicago Manual of Style</a>, but not always.)
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I wasn't nitpicking, I was subtly joking without afterthoughts.
I do admit I had the problem of choosing between "o's" and 'o's. Usually I make a difference between attaching the final "s" to the word or not as I am aware of it indicating the genitive, but even so, let's not consider the legal aspects of the case, I beg you, as this would lead us really too far and all without a purpose. In a moral sense moreover, anything you could conceive of can "own" something, if only a quality of some kind, which the character "o" definitely does. Doesn't it display the qualities of being lower-cased and single, after all ?
I also must admit this topic has the added value of having raised my IQ with at least two points through learning me that you were a Technical Writer for a few very large and important companies. Thank you, TehBorken.
P.S. Damn stupid software. Instead of posting this on the forum, it sends me the message "Notice - while you were typing 2 new replies were posted. You may wish to review your post.", and makes me reformat my post again and delete all the stupid add-ons such as backslashes which it added meanwhile to it.