Darin: On the desktop, there is this "user's Home" string. Is that from oafinfo or why is it not marked for translation? menthos: Let me look. menthos: Just an error. ok menthos: I marked it now. cool Darin: There is an additional problem with that string. menthos: Well the very idea of embedding a login name in a string is pretty weak. Darin: My username ends with an s, and "menthos's Home" does not look pretty... menthos: How can you get the two parts to match in style. heh menthos: Actually "menthos's Home" is correct English. is it? no, "menthos' Home" is correct Renze: Wrong. Look it up. menthos: assuming your username is not plural Renze: Like mjs said. eli: That's the one. Darin, mjs: Ok Darin, mjs: if a word ends in 's' and ownership needs to be shown, a single ' is added to the end. Renze: That's if it's a plural. no Renze: A singular word that ends in "s" gets a "'s". trust me no Renze: I'll need you to cite a source. Anyway, this won't work with other languages. Renze: Since the 3 writing style books I have here all agree on this point. menthos: True. singular/plural isn't at issue... ownership is fine, be wrong then... I really don't care. :) Renze: you're really stubborn Darin: In Swedish, an "s" is only added if the word does not end in an s-like sound, both in singular and plural. mjs: yes, I am menthos: Right, and you can hardly expect the computer to figure that out. menthos: So the whole idea is intrinsically hard to do right, and probably a bad direction. True. person's (singular), peoples' (plural), NameEndingIns' (singular ownership) Darin: Do you want a bug report on why that string needs rework? menthos: That would be great. coming menthos: There are 3 issues as least: 1) translation 2) lower-case letter 3) just tacking on "'s" Maybe a 4th issue since login names just "don't mix" with plain natural language text. menthos: You can mention any or all of those. I don't know why you just didn't call it "Home" :) "My home" ? Renze: Search for "singular possessive" using www.google.com. You'll see tons of sites that explain the rule that mjs and I mentioned earlier. Renze: But perhaps it's different in non-American English usage. Darin: maybe in American English... but we all know how fucked up that is. :) spelling armour without the 'u'... pfffft :) just "Home" should be OK, really mjs: "Home" could be mistaken for /home Renze: but american english is so colourful herring: heh :) Renze: I'm still waiting for you to point me to even one source that describes it your way, American or no. I have it in books here, but I'm too lazy to type them out. Renze: The Google list was *full* of sites that describe it the way mjs and I did. Renze: But I didn't see one that matched the rule you described. Darin: hey, I'm just going with what was drilled into me in first year English. :) Renze: It's funny you say that. I remembered it the way you did a few years back (from my old English classes). Renze: I later concluded that it was my memory that was faulty, since I found my old English grammar book and it didn't say what I thought it had. Darin: #1668 is a bug on the desktop Home icon and name. Should that be reopened? menthos: No. menthos: A new bug is fine. ok Something like: Darin: "Beavis's" looks so messy compared to "Beavis'" :) "menthos's Home" string is unpleasant, hard to translate Renze: I'll bring it up with the "updating English grammar" committee. updating? it has always been that way. :P Renze: Now you're just making yourself look silly. Renze: However, the right way to pronounce it is Beavissez Renze: so Beavis's is the correct way to write it mjs: both versions are pronounced that way... mjs: I'm not sure that has much to do with it. mjs: But perhaps it does. OK. I'm done with this topic. I hope you two are too. if English was written the way it sounds, it would not look anything like it does. :) Renze: I was under the mistaken impression that you might consider the possibility that you could be wrong when confronted with evidence. Darin: hmmm Darin: tsk, tsk Darin: I'm not wrong on this point... I'm 1,000,000% sure I'm correct. Renze: Your memory vs. many web sites and 2 others here and you're still so sure. Renze: I'm losing respect for your mental prowess. not just my memory... also a book entitled "Write Right" * Darin is done now. look it up on Amazon "Exception: An apostrophe alone may be added to a singular word ending in -s when another s would make the word difficult to say: Moses' mother, Joan Rivers' jokes." Renze: So even your book says that the normal rule is to use "'s"! oops I'm supposed to be off that topic. heh yes, but 's can be very messy that was from http://hartman_t.web.lynchburg.edu/public/website/201/201puncuation2.htm#37a ...och någonstans där dog konversationen om just detta ämne ut...