To expect people not to use the word hung when they mean hanged.

[cushioncover]

Ok, I know IABU, and I'm no grammar queen myself but I've read this 4 times today and I just had to rant about it! There!

[Dinosaur]

puff

[ElsieSnuffins]

"at all"

As in, "Would you like a drink at all?"

Meaning what? "Would you even consider having a drink?"

[puff]

I always say my mother hung herself.

I don't like to think of her executing herself and prefer to think she was dead already iyswim.

Meat is hung.

A man is hanged.

[RibenaBerry]

My argument was slightly different: it was that bra has become a word in its own right. It's similar to the fact that I only know one person who writes 'phone (as in "Sarah 'phoned"), which of course is a contraction.

Had never thought that about CD's....

[StealthPolarBear]

I never use an apostrophe for contractions
CD's is very common but surely if it indicates missing letters it should be C'D's?

[RibenaBerry]

Right, I have a question.

I was looking at an online shop that sold Bra's. My initial thought was, "oh, can't shop here then". However, is that actually correct, given that bra is a contraction of brassiere?

Mind you, I don't think that they were that clever. It said Bras on all the other brand pages!

[Dinosaur]

Possibly...

[frogs]

Dino, might there be a tense issue there? "I sentence you to be hung..." but "he was hanged"? No evidence for this btw, just hypothesising. Have looked up shorter OED, but is not conclusive, just cites 'hanged' as archaic form of the pple, wrt execution.

[Threadworm]

And if lots of clairvoyants set up a single newspaper, would it be a media's medium?

[Dinosaur]

A very recent change then.

The refs I found were older than that, I think.

Anyway, people with an obsessive interest in judicial murder give me the creeps, so I'm not googling any more!

[Ellbell]

LOL Threadworm. I believe that the media are to blame.

[cushioncover]

The extract states that in 1948 the wording changed from, 'suffer death by hanging' to 'be hanged by the neck until dead'.

Sorry, my link doesn't seem to work.

[sweetboy]

I haven't read the whole thread so I may be repeating a previous post. I would like to add "It doesn't notice..." This is said of an inanimate object such as a spot on your face; instead of "It doesn't really show..." or something similar!

[Dinosaur]

I found several refs to "hung by the neck".

[cushioncover]

Oh and I found the reference on a site about capital punishment in the UK.
www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging1
I'll try and find something more credible.

[cushioncover]

Oh no I wasn't trying to give you (or anyone else) a grammar lesson there. I was trying to clarify my own rambling (in the previous post) on a point I often have to think about.

Please don't be offended.

[Dinosaur]

Thanks, but my grammar is rather good, actually .

[cushioncover]

Lol, yes Dino!
People is its own plural word rather than the singular with an 's' added. Therefore, the possessive of people is people's.

If it was, 'The girls' princess', then the apostrophe comes after the 's' to donate plural. This avoids confusion with the princess that belongs to the girl.

Hope that makes sense.

[Dinosaur]

And I am still not sure I agree with you!

Find me an authoritative source which demonstrates that judges used to say "I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead" rather than "hung by the neck"?

[Dinosaur]

You mean, like the people's princess?

[cushioncover]

Sorry, Dino. Just seen your question. It is actually, 'hanged by the neck until dead'. Just as it is actually, 'hanged, drawn and quartered'. Years of general conversation have changed them.

Although I have to say, I'm not so much of a stickler that I don't think that language much adapt and change.

Can I just hold my hand up and admit to sometimes getting confused (or forgeting) the rule for the plural possessor. I always have to think about whether it's a regular plural with an 's' or whether the plural requires no 's' therefore the apostrophe should go before the 's'! I think I just keep on top of that one because I have to teach it to Y6s. It's the only use of apostrophe that sometimes confuses me.

[MrsBumblebee]

PMSL

[Threadworm]

I mean ', , and ' of course.

On the singular verb thing, the data are inconclusive.

[Ellbell]

NB that my last two posts are inconsistent in their emoticon/punctuation usage.

I can't spell 'repentance'. Total mental block about it!

[Threadworm]

Equivalent!!!! My favourite word to spell wrong. See, skirt tucked in knickers , , .

(Note the use of the serial comma before the final emoticon.)