Hey Grammar Geek, for singular possessives ending in "s", especially names, some add just an apostrophe and others add an apostrophe followed by an "s". Style and grammar guides disagree or list it as optional as long as you're consistent. By the way, the very sources you quote both say this. You should read them before you post.

This topic has been discussed in much more detail in the following post:

http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.php?id=68

As I'm sure you're aware, pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, 3.14159.... It's a transcendental number, i.e. the sequence of digits after the decimal point is non-terminating and non-repeating. When pi is used as a verb, it means to randomize, to jumble, to reduce to chaos, similar to the randomly non-repeating nature of pi's digits.

"Pi the type" is a printer/typesetter's expression meaning to, say, take a form with all the type neatly arranged and ready for printing and then drop it on the floor, spilling the type so that characters are strewn all over, mixed up randomly. I suppose it might also describe simply putting type in a form completely at random, not necessarily spilling it on the floor.

And what about adjectives? A ruler can be twelve inches long, but that makes it a twelve inch ruler.

Natalie, I see that you and Jenna posted at exactly the same time. I think she detailed the reasoning you were seeking. I would take issue with one thing, though. "Let's you and me..." isn't necessarily redundant. Let's uncompress it into "Let us, you and me, ...". It could be understood that "you and me" is adding specificity. "Let us..." by itself, might be ambiguous. It could be you, me, and everyone else. "You and me" is just the two of us. Also, "let you and me...", or just "let you..." is awkward and isn't really used. "let you..." is reflexive and should be "let yourself...". Without the "us", there isn't an elegant way to include just you and me.

While I didn't exactly do an exhaustive study, I believe that grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are separate and independent conventions of English usage. Thus, a word that is capitalized incorrectly is not spelled incorrectly (and incorrect spelling does not constitute bad grammar, etc.). Now, incorrect capitalization is still wrong, it just isn't misspelling.

In a spelling bee, there is no capitalization or lack thereof. Does that mean that it's impossible to spell a word orally? of course not!

Lottie, "daily" rhymes with Hayley.

And to deez simith, the first consonant of the stressed syllable need not be the same for a word to rhyme. only the following consonants, etc. But, even if what you say were true, then by your own rules "cat" does still have a rhyme. "scat" would rhyme with "cat".

Most of the previous posts are on the right track, but there's something that no one has explicitly stated.

The word "people" meaning more than one person, is a plural noun.

The word "people" meaning a group or society with a common culture, history, geography, ethnicity, etc. may actually be used as a singular noun. Thus, "peoples" would be the plural for more than one "people".

Examples:

"We are a people of honesty and integrity"

"Many peoples originally migrated from Africa during early human evolution"

See the usage note at www.dictionary.com

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=people

tjf, what about just saying "Maybe I (he/she/you) could have gotten it cheaper"? I think that's what most people would say (by the way, I'm not saying there's necessarily anything wrong with "might could", even if it is an idiom).