Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 January 9

= January 9 =

It's cold drinks signs in Japan
I fail to understand the name of this category "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:It’s_cold_drink_signs_in_Japan" at Wikipedia Commons. What does "It's cold drink signs in Japan" mean? How is that supposed to be parsed? The original Japanese name doesn't help as I don't understand Japanese. J I P &#124; Talk 16:48, 9 January 2020 (UTC)


 * Looking at its parent category "Category:Food and drink signs in Japan", it's clear that the word "It's" should be removed. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  18:58, 9 January 2020 (UTC)


 * That category is a little strange, since it contains a Unicode "smartquote" character, which is somewhat against Commons consensus, and also appears to be a poor translation from Japanese into English... AnonMoos (talk) 00:27, 10 January 2020 (UTC)


 * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Recommending_signs_in_Japan 89.172.38.145 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:39, 10 January 2020 (UTC)

I would put it to you that it is punctuation that is at fault, and that it should be read as, "Its Cold" Drinks sign in Japan. Thanks. Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 10:13, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * "Its" is a possessive. What would "its cold" mean? His cold or her cold. But "its" cold? An inanimate object with a cold?? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:13, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * "Its cold" means "it's cold". Really not so difficult. -- Hoary (talk) 13:10, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * No, it doesn't. "It's" is a contraction of "it is". "Its" is the possessive of "it". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:33, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry. I should have taken the trouble to write: "When Anton wrote '"Its Cold" Drinks sign in Japan', by 'Its Cold' he meant what is conventionally written 'It's cold'. Really not so difficult." -- Hoary (talk) 22:19, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. And either way, the "it[']s" doesn't really make sense. Maybe a mistranslation. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 03:46, 11 January 2020 (UTC)
 * So far as I bothered to look, the signs advertise cold drinks, or else drinks that can be assumed to be, or at least to include, cold drinks. The signs do not advertise the coldness of the drinks. So "'It's cold' drinks signs in Japan" wouldn't be appropriate. Plain "Cold drinks signs in Japan" would be appropriate. -- Hoary (talk) 13:10, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * What he said, which is what I said up top. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:37, 11 January 2020 (UTC)


 * It appears the category was created by a couple of years ago. He's still active, on Commons at least, so maybe you could ask him why he gave that category its name. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:13, 12 January 2020 (UTC)