Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Username

kyule

Member Since

June 29, 2009

Total number of comments

2

Total number of votes received

18

Bio

Latest Comments

Table of Content vs Table of Contents

  • November 14, 2009, 2:17am

My house may only be one place, but it's still "the premises", not "the premise".

"Content" as a mass noun is a very recent phenomenon.

Someone else’s

  • June 29, 2009, 1:40am

My first reaction was that I agreed with yello.cape.cod's conclusion but not their argument. After all, "Someone else", like "attorney general", is a noun (well, pronoun, but close enough) plus a trailing adjective, so gee, why aren't the two constructions the same?

Oh. Right: "Someone else's" is a possessive. "Attorneys general" is a plural. Never mind.