Last year, I point out the time distance to show that I have given this conundrum much thought, someone read a paragraph of my writing and honed in on one particular word 'ROUND'. He said, 'Did I not mean around?' Yes I did mean around, but until he mentioned it I had not realised that I tended to say and write -round the block - all round nice guy - they went round the back - etc. Now, when I am reading, 'round' jumps out at me and I have noticed nobody seems to write around. Any thoughts?
when using the elided version, you must add an apostrophe to show you dropped the 'a'... otherwise, it's a synonym for 'spherical'... so: the other way 'round he walked 'round the block another go-'round and so on.........
Thank you, just as I thought, but you might notice that this is not adhered to in many books, and it is not only in modern writing. I am reading a fabulous old book of short stories by Nigel Balchin. It was written in the fifties and even he substitutes around for round without the apostrophe.
RE: Nigel Balchin Up until last month I hadn't heard of him either. I found him in my loft, old red canvas cover, yelllowing pages, musty smell, wonderful. His short stories give an idea of I how the past once was. Some of it is not politically correct, but that is interesting in itself.
as he was an english bloke whose last book was written over 4 decades ago, how his work is punctuated is really not a reliable guide in re how to do your own work now... besides which, you can't tell if it was him leaving off that apostrophe, or the publisher...
I think our converstaion has derailed slightly. Balchin seems to have captured the subject. What I meant was, many writers, new and old, use round instead of around.
Agreed, but who is correct? I was listening to a programme called 'Word of Mouth' on Radio 4. A university professor was saying Strunk and White etc. have a lot wrong. The programme can be listened to again for the next five days, I am sure it will get advocates hoping mad. Just because something is in print it doesn't make it right does it?
Zaffy, I missed this post in April... Balchin (or his editor) was correct. British English prefers “round” as both an adverb and a preposition, unless it is a fixed expression. In England, we'd write “The wheels go round.” SOURCE: Fowler’s Modern English Usage.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "round" (no apostrophe) is fine in the first two of those. And Shakespeare wrote "Full thirty times hath Phoebus' Cart gone round Neptune's salt wash". Is this another US/British difference in usage?
I think this must be a British/American thing. It is true that round = spherical, but in plenty of expressions where there is no ambiguity of meaning, e.g. "come round about five" it is normal in British English to write 'round'. It would be much more unusual to write "come 'round about five" these days. The same goes for 'til/til, e.g. "We danced til dawn." Older books may write 'til, but it's pretty unusual now.
In British English, "Come around" usually means "regain consciousness", so it would be the "come around about five" that would be ambiguous (aside from the ambiguity over whether it means "Come round. Do so at about five", or the more colloquial "Come. Do so at round about five." Ah, what fun language is!
