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chris_p_bacon1 t1_j1gg4p6 wrote

Scott Morrison (the ex prime minister's) father was the head of the local police department that swept all this under the rug.

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dshmitty t1_j1gpnfl wrote

If I was writing this sentence it would have been a conundrum whether to put the “‘s”after Morrison or minister. And, that’s fucked up

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tomrollock t1_j1gxumc wrote

Or “Ex-prime minister Scott Morrison’s father…”

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BusterStarfish t1_j1iza2o wrote

Or, “The father of ex-Prime Minister, Scott Morrison…”

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xTwizzler t1_j1jj9eg wrote

Or “The Scott minister’s father, Ex-Morrison of Prime.”

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TootsNYC t1_j1gqsf8 wrote

(I’m pretty sure you put it after both. But the smartest move is to avoid the possessive on either)

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dshmitty t1_j1gu77i wrote

Yeah I would have wrote it as “Scott Morrison’s father (the ex prime minister) was the head of…”

Edit: I’m dumb I thought Scott Morrison was the son of the prime minister lol. So, better way to write it would be “the father of ex prime minister Scott Morrison was blah blah”

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cpt_ppppp t1_j1gv6wa wrote

would this not be saying that Scott Morrison's father was the ex prime minister?

Personally I would go with 'The father of ex-prime minister, Scott Morrison, was the head of...'

but what do I know, English be tough sometimes

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hughperman t1_j1hlnn6 wrote

Good call. In weird phrasing cases, I usually just break it into smaller sentences. "Scott Morrison is the ex-prime minister. His father was..."

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bmorejaded t1_j1gwwwk wrote

Needs commas instead of parenthesis.

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dshmitty t1_j1gx24x wrote

Yeah that works too but I was wrong, Scott Morrison was the prime minister. I don’t know shit about Australia lol

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Potential_Sherbet513 t1_j1h4qka wrote

Not true, brackets are fine there

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bmorejaded t1_j1hromv wrote

They technically work here but the information seems integral. They're overused in a lot of writing. They are most effective when adding information that isn't easily included by is necessary to understand the sentence. I'm not the only one to say this and there are a couple examples floating around.

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dshmitty t1_j1jchya wrote

When you say brackets are you referring to parentheses, these ( )? This is so confusing. In the US, these are brackets [ ] and these are parentheses ( ). But apparently in other places brackets by itself means parentheses unless specified, “square brackets” for example. I never knew that

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DatSolmyr t1_j1htr0r wrote

This is the classical example of how English' possessive S is transitioning from a word case to an enclitic, which is a small word that is not fully independant, but isn't just a part of another word: that you use it at the end of phrases (the Queen of England's funeral)

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dshmitty t1_j1in8h3 wrote

That’s really interesting! I took a linguistics course in college and it was fascinating learning stuff like that.

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nikzuko t1_j1gvbyc wrote

Both? The bit within the brackets is intended to provide more context of the person and also be a replacement if the sentence were read without the name?

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dshmitty t1_j1gvju5 wrote

I was mostly being kidding, I already said the way it probably should have been written in a different comment. Also just so you know, they are parentheses, not brackets. Brackets are these [bracket]

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ElNeneAngel t1_j1hw6iv wrote

"Bracket" covers both in English, to the extent that [ ] are even called "square brackets" and { } are called "curly brackets" (sometimes "braces").

I've now semantically satiated the word "bracket" and it all looks like gibberish. Had to double check!

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dshmitty t1_j1jai0v wrote

“Parentheses are the curved brackets "( )". They are also called round brackets, curved brackets, oval brackets, or, colloquially, parens.”

So, parentheses mean the same thing in non American English.

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dshmitty t1_j1in29g wrote

Haha yeah I getcha but that person was using parentheses, not either form of brackets. Although, maybe parentheses are called brackets in other places or something?

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Maus_Sveti t1_j1j9caq wrote

These () are called brackets in non-US English.

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dshmitty t1_j1ja1gg wrote

Ah that’s interesting. No fucking idea why I have downvotes on that lol. Damn people are sensitive as shit. They’re called parentheses in English, which is all i was saying. Not mad at u, but downvoting my comment literally makes no fucking sense lol.

Edit: “Parentheses are the curved brackets "( )". They are also called round brackets, curved brackets, oval brackets, or, colloquially, parens.”

So, parentheses is STILL correct in non-American English, it’s a more specific way of saying curved brackets.

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Maus_Sveti t1_j1jagyu wrote

Because it’s annoying to “correct” people on their English when you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Edit: 🙄

“As well as signifying the overall class of punctuation, the word "bracket" is commonly used to refer to a specific form of bracket, which varies from region to region. In most English-speaking countries, an unqualified word "bracket" refers to the parenthesis (round bracket); in the United States, the square bracket.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket

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dshmitty t1_j1jajre wrote

When I don’t know what I’m talking about? They’re called fucking parentheses ya dunce. Look it up.

Literally Google it. The person even acknowledged that they meant to say parentheses.

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Maus_Sveti t1_j1jb4hv wrote

The issue isn’t that they can be called parentheses, it’s that you said using the word brackets was wrong. Which it isn’t.

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dshmitty t1_j1jbewe wrote

THE PERSON EVEN CORRECTED THEMSELF. brackets, just brackets, mean these [], apparently in non-us English ( ) can be called curved brackets. Go fucking ask somebody in a other threat what “brackets” are. Just brackets. I would bet you anything the majority of people will say []. Now I know that in other countries just “brackets” can mean parentheses. But parentheses is clearly more specific, more easily understood, and it’s what the op meant to say. As a matter of fact, go ask the fucking op if they meant brackets or parentheses.

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dshmitty t1_j1jbzyz wrote

How about this from Merriam-Webster. They use that in other countries right?

“a : one of a pair of marks [ ] used in writing and printing to enclose matter or in mathematics and logic as signs of aggregation”

This is the only relevant definition. So, people might call it that where you’re from, but its unspecific and parentheses is still a word there.

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lunettarose t1_j1hgkt1 wrote

I'd have gone with "ex-prime minister Scott Morrison's father"

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oneplusetoipi t1_j1iv04z wrote

Thread Subject: Horrifying story of mass murder

Thread Conclusion: English Grammar has some interesting rules

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WATGU t1_j1i4iou wrote

Lot of acceptable ways to do it I like this one.

The father of former prime minister, Scott Morrison, was the …

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