Same as Ruth's WAV (and the OED). What's your stance on the greengrocers' apostrophe in 'it's'.

Have you any idea whether these (fictional?) concertinas of yours had brass or steel reeds?

Did you know they had reeds?

Did you know they were made of different materials.

I personally think the brass reed has a more Victorian tone suited to top line melody or harmony.

Thanks for reductive Ruth - I was looking for recursive to describe WAV's posts and couldn't bring it back to mind.

English (the language) I love in its many variants and dialects: because I love the poetry of the language I hate sloppy grammar and pretentious imitations of poetry.

Stu