Subset Games Forum

There's a grammatical error in the victory message.



The apostrophe is in the wrong place, it should be "Rebels' Flagship". At the moment it suggests there was only one Rebel.

Sorry to be pedantic.

Well spotted. I never noticed this. There shouldn't be an apostrophe at all, right? Just "Rebels"
At least i think so.

UltraMantis wrote:Well spotted. I never noticed this. There shouldn't be an apostrophe at all, right? Just "Rebels"
At least i think so.

If "Rebel" is a singular noun and it owns the flagship, it should be "Rebel's Flagship." This is what it says, but it does sound wrong.
If "Rebels" is a plural noun and they own the flagship, it should be "Rebels' Flagship." This is one of the two valid ways to put it.
If "Rebel" is an adjective describing the noun "flagship," it should be "Rebel Flagship." This is the other of the two valid ways to put it.

Well it's valid if "Rebel" is the name of the faction. It does sound weird, though. Language changes over time so maybe it's weird space grammar :p I'd put my vote for "Rebel Flagship".

5thHorseman wrote:

If "Rebel" is a singular noun and it owns the flagship, it should be "Rebel's Flagship." This is what it says, but it does sound wrong.
If "Rebels" is a plural noun and they own the flagship, it should be "Rebels' Flagship." This is one of the two valid ways to put it.
If "Rebel" is an adjective describing the noun "flagship," it should be "Rebel Flagship." This is the other of the two valid ways to put it.[/quote]

Third valid way: if "Rebels" is a singular noun (being the name of the faction), "Rebels's Flagship" would also be, while terrible sounding, correct. Of course, it is this kind of pedantry that caused them to rebel against the Federation in the first place.

stvip wrote:

5thHorseman wrote:

If "Rebel" is a singular noun and it owns the flagship, it should be "Rebel's Flagship." This is what it says, but it does sound wrong.
If "Rebels" is a plural noun and they own the flagship, it should be "Rebels' Flagship." This is one of the two valid ways to put it.
If "Rebel" is an adjective describing the noun "flagship," it should be "Rebel Flagship." This is the other of the two valid ways to put it.

Third valid way: if "Rebels" is a singular noun (being the name of the faction), "Rebels's Flagship" would also be, while terrible sounding, correct. Of course, it is this kind of pedantry that caused them to rebel against the Federation in the first place.[/quote]

Haha

Though as someone whose name ends with an "s", I know that that would actually still be "Rebels' Flagship"

It is really odd that it hasn't been fixed.

Rebel's flagship is correct cuz you killed all the crewmen on their ship but that laser turret guy right? =P

5thHorseman wrote:
Haha

Though as someone whose name ends with an "s", I know that that would actually still be "Rebels' Flagship"

Well, not sure what you'd take as authoritative, but:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... tv57.shtml
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/possessives.htm

So both forms are correct. Would you like to buy my grammar guide for 45 scrap? Respirators not included.

stvip wrote:

5thHorseman wrote:Though as someone whose name ends with an "s", I know that that would actually still be "Rebels' Flagship"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... tv57.shtml
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/possessives.htm

So both forms are correct. Would you like to buy my grammar guide for 45 scrap? Respirators not included.

I actually didn't know that, though I'll stick with the way I know, and especially because the AP style guide says to

Language is crazy, though, and there's always an exception to every rule (except this one).