edit: Don’t downvote me oiks, I’m right. I didn’t go to prep school and get molested by a paedophile just to endure the incorrect use of classical languages by Yanks trying to sound smart and, as ever, failing. We speak English, not Latin and, even if we did, Rhinoceros is a Greek-derivative word so you should not pluralise it in a Latin fashion. It would be Rhinoceroi or Rhinocerata or something daft (don’t remember Greek, memory is hazy from the rohypnol).
Capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and help your uncle jack off a horse.
…or rather than invent unlikely scenarios to support your dubious Latinate plurals of Greek words, you could just re-cast your sentence to be non-ambiguous.
We invited Washington, Lincoln and the rhinoceroses.
Suddenly, I’ve learnt quite a lot about the English language. And, surprisingly, a lot of British redditors went to really posh schools?
The context makes this clear though
Unambiguous sentance construction means we invited Washington, Lincoln and the rhinoceri
>We invited Nigel Farage, a man we greatly respect, and the rhinoceri.
Commas are also used in English to form clauses. So if you use the Oxford comma thoughtlessly where it’s not needed then you might end up writing sentences like this in which a reader might think you greatly respect Nigel Farage.
Personally, I think the Oxford comma looks childish (like a 5 year old talking – ‘for dinner, I had fish, and chips, and peas, and ketchup, and an orange juice…’). So I only use in it the situations where it specifically adds value. But I can accept the opposite – using it generally but removing it situations when it creates confusion. Just don’t go all or nothing with it.
Very good but what’s a rhinoceri?
A panda eats shoots and leaves.
A panda eats, shoots and leaves.
I was taught that comma was wrong, looks like I’m getting a pair of strangely humanoid rhinoceroses over at my house later
That might be the worst example of the Oxford comma I’ve ever seen
Post it to r/oxfordcomma
What would an authentically Greek plural of rhinoceros look like? Rhinoceroi?
Who the hell would read it like that. With enough potentiousness you start to look really stupid.
14 comments
*rhinoceroses
This was clearly made by a boorish Yank
edit: Don’t downvote me oiks, I’m right. I didn’t go to prep school and get molested by a paedophile just to endure the incorrect use of classical languages by Yanks trying to sound smart and, as ever, failing. We speak English, not Latin and, even if we did, Rhinoceros is a Greek-derivative word so you should not pluralise it in a Latin fashion. It would be Rhinoceroi or Rhinocerata or something daft (don’t remember Greek, memory is hazy from the rohypnol).
Capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and help your uncle jack off a horse.
…or rather than invent unlikely scenarios to support your dubious Latinate plurals of Greek words, you could just re-cast your sentence to be non-ambiguous.
We invited Washington, Lincoln and the rhinoceroses.
Suddenly, I’ve learnt quite a lot about the English language. And, surprisingly, a lot of British redditors went to really posh schools?
The context makes this clear though
Unambiguous sentance construction means we invited Washington, Lincoln and the rhinoceri
>We invited Nigel Farage, a man we greatly respect, and the rhinoceri.
Commas are also used in English to form clauses. So if you use the Oxford comma thoughtlessly where it’s not needed then you might end up writing sentences like this in which a reader might think you greatly respect Nigel Farage.
Personally, I think the Oxford comma looks childish (like a 5 year old talking – ‘for dinner, I had fish, and chips, and peas, and ketchup, and an orange juice…’). So I only use in it the situations where it specifically adds value. But I can accept the opposite – using it generally but removing it situations when it creates confusion. Just don’t go all or nothing with it.
Very good but what’s a rhinoceri?
A panda eats shoots and leaves.
A panda eats, shoots and leaves.
I was taught that comma was wrong, looks like I’m getting a pair of strangely humanoid rhinoceroses over at my house later
That might be the worst example of the Oxford comma I’ve ever seen
Post it to r/oxfordcomma
What would an authentically Greek plural of rhinoceros look like? Rhinoceroi?
Who the hell would read it like that. With enough potentiousness you start to look really stupid.
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