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Whatever happened to 'Burmese'?

1/17/2013

1 Comment

 
Have you noticed how the media has, for no explicable reason, developed the habit of not using the adjectival derivative of countries’ names (i.e. the nationality) in headlines?
I have noticed this in both print and on-line news
articles.
Here are a few recent examples:
 ‘Attackers kill Nigeria Christians’
 ‘Japan whalers given ....’
 ‘Chad troops to fight .....’
 ‘Kenya army rampage’
 ‘Norway minister’s EU exit warning’
'Canada's new plastic banknotes feature Norway maple leaves instead of the Canadian sugar maple leaf.'(Why Canadian and not Norwegian???)
 ‘Paraguay peasant leader shot dead’
 Curiously, on the same webpage and immediately below     
 the headline above, it had:
 ‘Slovenian ex-PM wins presidency’ ???!! 
So why use ‘Slovenian’ if you don’t use ‘Nigerian’ or ‘Kenyan’? Where’s the justification or reasoning? 
‘Nigeria’ and ‘Kenya’ are proper nouns; they are not adjectives!
Are we seeing ‘Australia beach closed due to shark attack’ or ‘Britain man accused of ...’? Well, not yet and hopefully never. Come on media editors, do your jobs and get back to proper English!  


1 Comment

Is it 'its' or 'it's'?

1/4/2013

0 Comments

 
It’s not the same as its name if it’s its number but when it’s time to send it to its owner it’s better if its belongings are included before it’s too late or its sell-by date may be past and then it’s a case of checking its condition and deciding if it’s still O.K. for its inclusion in the mix.

Phew. There, hope that clarifies this popular problem.

For further enlightenment and to report apostrophe abuse - go to this website
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    Peter (aka 'Eagle Eye')

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