@k-p-in-spain - Ben Doak passed his 19th birthday only 10 days ago. When a lad is fit, and only 18/19 years old, I don't think "running on empty" lasts more than a few hours let alone a few days! I think the only reason not to play him is being (over)protective. And bearing in mind what most footballers say, I suspect he'll want to play every minute of every game unless genuinely injured.
A very different and excellent opener OFB, I was a fan of Morse and Endeavour, also Lewis and now I have started watching foreign detective series with subtitles.
I was thinking to myself who is writing this preview, until I stumbled across it in the Middlesbrough FC section, confused 😂.
Today’s presser confirmed Morris is still in the USA being assessed and will be back at Rockcliffe on Monday. As far as Hackney and Doak are concerned, it’s a matter of wait until 1400 on Saturday for the team announcement.
Oxford have had some very close games against some of the present top 10 so don’t expect an easy 3 points, let’s hope we don’t do the usual post international break performance, maybe with a few getting their chance to prove themselves there will not be any complacency.
Come on BORO.
@exmil Yes, I hope you are OK, too and ready for the fun Boro are about to deliver this season. In Carrick we trust. And the same foryou, OFB - I hope you are able to resume sitting at Riverside on Wednesday
@dormo and @len, the following question goes mainly to you. As we recently discussed the use of the apostrophe in the Queens Part Rangers blog, I think its general roles are quite clear to me.
But there is one case where I do not understand the use of apostrophe. Oxford United are often called the U's. Is this genetive case of U(nited) or as I understand it plural?
I have the same problem at work. We have a SKU (stock keeping unit). If we have many (ten thousonds) is it SKU's or SKUs? Which one I should use.
Sorry, for using the blog for this, but I am still learning the language. But without following Boro, I would never had learnt English as well as I do and hence being able to work in a Global company for the past 16 years.
Up the Boro!
Well spotted Exmil I've moved the preview to the 2024-25 forum - I'm glad someone is paying attention 😉
Many thanks OFB for donning the mantle and endeavoring to produce an original and excellent Oxford preview - we may need some detective skills to find a midfield on Saturday and could possibly have done with Inspector Morsy to solve the problem...
I can only hope Lewis (sorry Morris) will not be out for too long as he's been a key player and possibly our best along with Doak - who hopefully is not suffering burnout too.
As mentioned before the unwelcome international break it's now more or less 3 games every 7 days until early January. This will most likely be the key period of the season with a quarter of the season's fixtures played over the next six weeks! Rotating the squad will be essential if Boro are to escape the fate of last season where the injuries just kept coming.
Anyway, hopefully Boro continue where they left off and blow away the opposition this week with what looks like 3 winnable games.
Still Boro3 has now become the conservative prediction 🙂
Ooops !
Thanks Werder I was half asleep when I finally posted it !
Thanks for spotting it Exmil !
OFB
@jarkko In the case of plurals no apostrophe is necessary, so you may have a lot of SKUs but the racking where they may be stored would be the SKU’s racking.
As for Oxford United, their nickname would be the Us and not the U’s. Hope that helps.
That’s an interesting one as I’ve seen both U’s and Us being stated as the acceptable plural of U - I would prefer U’s as it removes the ambiguity of it being Us as in ‘Us versus Them’ - I think Oxford United use U’s as their nickname though the Oxford dictionary prefer Us.
I fear a grammatical can of worms has been opened 🤔
@martin-bellamy Exactly my thoughts. But I have seen it U's more often.
Apparenntly I was listening to our CEO talking on a video this morning. The speech was recorded in Denver and he is American. The video had text on it, too. And I saw it spelled as SKUs.
I have alwaus thought it should have been Us, too. Not U's except as you said. U's manager.
@werder, They do not read Oxford dictionary at Oxford United, I see. Strange. Up the Boro!
Just to add that Oxford United were originally called Headington United so the the nickname The U's could refer to them being both - though then that would be short for a plural of United, which I don't think would have an apostrophe.
Anyway, just read about this rule...
Single letter and digit plurals
Use an apostrophe before the ‘s’ for plurals of single letters and single-digit numbers. They are exceptions to the rule of not using an apostrophe for the plural form of a noun.The apostrophe ensures that letter plurals are easier to understand. Don’t italicise these plurals or place them in quotation marks.
Example
- Binary code uses 0’s and 1’s.
- Dot your i’s and cross your t’s when you edit the report.
@jarkko There's a very good book by Simon Heffer titled Strictly English - the correct way to write...and why it matters published by Windmill Books. It took me back to schooldays with sentence analysis, anyway it is very interesting but you may enjoy being the founder member of English Grammar Police in Finland with the information it provides. Priced at £8.99!
ATB everyone.
UTB,
John
@werdermouth Thanks for that - at 69 I’ve learned something new, which is always great. My old English teacher, Geoff Farrington at Guisborough Grammar, would be very disappointed in me for getting that wrong.
It might well have been right back then but I belong to the generation where they decided to stop teaching grammar and opted for comprehension and expression instead - I don’t know the terms for anything beyond basic grammar, which has proved quite difficult to learn a second language as I’ve no idea about what terms like future perfect etc actually mean. I just know grammar by usage and seem to know what sounds right.
In reality, the great majority of people learn their own language by hearing it, using it, and repeating it, without ever understanding or needing to know how it works. As a linguist, I needed to learn and understand the grammar of languages I’ve learned (or dabbled in), but I have very little knowledge of English grammar other than by comparing it to others.
@ofb
That's a brilliant starter, OFB! Ingenious, intriguing and inspired! Lewis was a Boro fan? Who knew?
As others have said, I think tomorrow’s game is harder than some might imagine. The Us (Sorry! No apostrophe needed for this, in my view) have started much better than many expected. I have them down to finish in the bottom three in Powmill’s COTS challenge, but they don’t look under any threat just yet, and their home form, as OFB said, has been strong. Add to that our injury situation plus the fact we have several key players returning from sometimes lengthy overseas trips might give Oxford the edge. I’ll go with the draw, and breathe a huge sigh of relief if we don’t lose.
Guessing that I might be a little older and so was brought up with some written grammar. Anyway, for my sins, I have been proof-reading Mrs. Oz's PhD thesis and, after going through 80,000 words, I have commas swimming in front of my eyes.
I don't want to further multiply the cans of worms that we are opening, but there's a fun book on this topic called Eats Shoots and Leaves with it being intentionally unclear whether there is a comma after Eats. As this is a football blog, it seems appropriate to consider the different options.
I'm nervous about today's game because of the absence of Morris. He really has been the glue holding us together and I hope that we can cope without having him there when needed.
I'll take any win because the three games this week represent an opportunity to charge up the table, and momentum is everything in this league.
UTB
@werdermouth The same with me. You write pretty well though- I stick to short sentences and avoid the tricky bits if I can! Your writing appears fluid and (as far as I can tell) grammar-wise spot on.
Just seen that the game has been chosen for overseas broadcasting so Boro Live will not be available to stream, Radio Tees only unless you are in certain jurisdictions without a contract. The referee this afternoon is Josh Smith who last refereed us early las season , 1-1 v Huddersfield at home.
I remember Mrs Werder buying Eats Shoots and Leaves about 20 years ago but I didn't get round to reading it but she really liked it. btw it was written by L Truss - no not the one who bit off more than she could chew before shooting herself in the foot and leaving 😉
Good luck with the proof reading it's not an easy task to keep concentrated!
And good luck to Mrs Oz with her PhD too!
Thanks but grammar is mainly down to my subconscious brain now 🙂
Just checked the weather forecast for Oxford today and it is heavy rain and 43 mph winds all afternoon, that will impact on the game and conditions like that invite injuries, it won’t help that the Kassam Stadium is very open and there is no stand at the west end, all of the other three corners are open.
Come on BORO.
@werdermouth - I have enjoyed reading the posts so far in this thread (very ably started by OFB with his dive into Morse). Jarrko's enquiry has been answered so I will not go back to that, save to say that it is possible U's might have been the use of an apostrophe to show the other letters of "United" have been omitted. But I think the overwhelming likelihood is that whoever first put it into print didn't give any thought to it at all, and just typed "U's". The culprit MIGHT have wanted to avoid confusion with the opposite of THEM, but I suspect little or no thought was given to it.
I have a copy of "Eats shoots and leaves" but don't know where it is at present. I might look for it later. Lynne Truss, who wrote it, was a journalist and literary editor with a few extra strings to her bow and I seem to remember the book was well advertised in The Times or Telegraph and certainly sold well. No relation the short-lived Premier (Liz Truss), so far as I am aware.
I suspect that the majority of the people in the UK know little about grammar but, as has been suggested earlier, simply picked up the basics of English grammar by virtue of having been immersed in English in their general lives, hearing it spoken and trying to make themselves understood in their replies! Of course it wouldn't help if the people they most listened to, or tried to speak to, had only limited knowledge of the grammar. Reading would have helped.
I have no scientific research to support this but wouldn't be surprised if the English in general were the worst population in terms of understanding their own language. It might be the result of the fact that most other people (unless you were to look for some remote tribes in the Amazon or in New Guinea) tend to learn other languages and therefore might need some understanding of grammar when working out the sense of the words in different languages. The English tend to learn only English yet most abroad will learn a number of languages. I'll bet that most in the UK who learned another language even to a basic level at school (say French or Latin) probably learned almost as much about their own language whilst doing so! And if Jarkko went to the Battered Badger and asked someone at the bar about his use of the genetive, he'd get mostly odd or confused looks. (I'd have said SKUs as well).
More directly related to football, the weather outside is frightful. Probably not great for playing football. I think the loss of Morris is a big blow. He has so much energy and does so much (good) work and, without Hackney as well, that will make the job a lot more difficult for Boro. We'll see who is selected but I hope and suspect Boro will be able to find some away to leave Oxford with three points today. The thing that worries me most is that this is following yet another International Break and we all know they were created specifically to cause Boro inconvenience.
2-1 to Boro but I'd be delighted with ANY win (and there will be no need to hide the sharp knives away if Boro were to draw).
@forever-dormo “More directly related to football, the weather outside is frightful.”
I can vouch for that. We’ve just arrived in Reeth for a few days - let’s just say it was an interesting drive and it’s a good job I drive a Defender. ❄️☃️
Boro need some good defenders in this poor weather !
Do you call yours Willie ? Maddren ?
OFB
Team News...
Midfield of Howson and Barlaser with Burgzorg starting ahead of McGree - Borges returns so Dijksteel drops to the bench.
Four changes: Brynn, Borges, Howson & Barlaser in for Dieng, Dijksteel, Morris & Hackney -
Dieng ill, apparently. 🙁
Boro need some good defenders in this poor weather !
Do you call yours Willie ? Maddren ?
OFB
Unfortunately not - my neighbour named it The Beast and it seems to have stuck (the name, not the Landrover).