ardly:
I thought the the original was clear. The best projects use a single microprocessor and it's (the microprocessor) capabilities are enhanced by external chips.
AWOL:
sp. "its capabilities"
Knowing that it's is a contraction for 'it is or it has' and its is a 'possessive case', the original sentence may take the following form
"The best projects often use a microcontroller with external chips to enhance and complement its (microcontroller) capabilities."
ardly:
I always get confused by its v it's , you are correct;
In typical English fashion it behaves exactly opposite to the usual way to create possessive nouns which are normally denoted by a single quote as in the man's shoes
GolamMostafa:
Knowing that it's is a contraction for 'it is or it has' and its is a 'possessive case', the original sentence may take the following form
"The best projects often use a microcontroller with external chips to enhance and complement its (microcontroller) capabilities."
Yes, that is the way I understood the original.
Because 'projects' is plural and 'micronctroller' is singular there is no ambiguity that "its capabilities" means the microcontrollers capapbilities.
If both are plural you get;
"The best projects often use microcontrollers with external chips to enhance and complement their capabilities."
Which could be read as
"The best projects often use microcontrollers (with external chips) to enhance and complement their capabilities." or
"The best projects often use microcontrollers (with external chips to enhance and complement their capabilities)."
if that makes sense.
ardly:
Which could be read as
"The best projects often use microcontrollers (with external chips) to enhance and complement their capabilities." or
"The best projects often use microcontrollers (with external chips to enhance and complement their capabilities)."
Robin2:
In typical English fashion it behaves exactly opposite to the usual way to create possessive nouns which are normally denoted by a single quote as in the man's shoes
...R
There are lots of rules like 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' , but not much science.
ardly:
There are lots of rules like 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' , but not much science.
Was the word 'science' formed based on the stated rules? If not, why are we so aware about the syntactical and semantic rules (the rules that we have deduced from the language itself) of the Language?
I think you will discover that the I before E rule only applies when the sound is an eee
...R
Ah, that is another layer to the rule (it is a bit like the rule for leap years).
The basic rule is "i before e" so "Science" should be spelled "Science".
However; the "except after c" part means it should be spelled "Sceince".
However; because the sound is not "eee" it should be spelled "Science"!
Of course it is not that simple
There are words like "height" and "weight" where there is no 'c' but 'i' does not come before 'e'.
I had a go at some pseudo code, but I think the rule is that there is no rule;
if following 'c'
{
if sound is not 'eee'
{
"i before e" // e.g. science - shot down by ?
}
else
{
"e before i" // e.g. fluorescein - but shot down by specie
}
}
else
{
if sound is not 'eee'
{
"e before i" // e.g. height - but shot down by identifier
}
else
{
"i before e" // e.g. field - but shot down by seize
}
}
The next time that someone makes such a claim politely ask them to provide mathematical proof that the source is very inefficient then sit back and enjoy the show as they trip over their own tongue from their linguistic gymnastics.
The above sentence is found in some other Section of this Forum. In this sentence, 'someone' is singular noun; but, the corresponding pronoun 'them (they/their)' is plural which has apparently (to me as a non-native) broken the noun-pronoun agreement rule. Is it acceptable in the English Language? If so, how/why?
GolamMostafa:
Is it acceptable in the English Language? If so, how/why?
For me, not a grammarian, yes, it is acceptable. Someone may be singular but it's still vague, as in you aren't given a gender. If the only possible respondents were male you could say, "If someone calls tell him I'm out." However the gender isn't known so, what is left? You could say "Tell that person..." or "Tell whomever calls..." but those are awkward. A nice example or two.