Or more appropriately misplaced apostrophes. That is the subject of my Ranty Friday this week. I am sick of them. Seeing apostrophes in the wrong place in documents produced by companies.
And it is hardly difficult. Why do people find it so hard to get it right?
I saw this picture in a garden centre last December and it made me scream. Not just one poster but all over the place. Printed presumably by somebody in charge of such matters.
Since when has ANYBODY seen ideas with an apostrophe? Never never never. It doesn’t even look right.
It is very simple. ‘s if it belongs to somebody, as in Tanya’s cakes. The cakes are plural so have no apostrophe. There is only one of me and the cakes belong to me so it denotes the possessive.
Or it shows that an i has been removed. As in “where’s Tanya?”
That is it. It is not rocket science.
PLURALS DO NOT HAVE AN APOSTROPHE. FULL STOP. THE END
I had this post in draft to write this week and then spotted this picture on my friend Nell’s Facebook page yesterday and I asked if I could grab it. She had spotted this in a shop earlier in the day.
IF YOU DON’T KNOW THAT GATEAUX IS ALREADY PLURAL USE “CAKE”
I might start carrying a marker pen so I can go around correcting these monstrosities.
There is a company near us that has sign written vans that mention “sofa’s”. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Then last week whilst travelling up the M6 Mr B spotted this:
There is no missing I. There is no possession. Shortening Leicestershire just makes it Leics.
For the love of God. Please companies, get it right.
Other Ranty Fridays can be found here. Do have a read and if you have written one, please link up
Haha I was looking at the word “Selby’s” at first and though – huh, that looks right. Then spotted the Leic’s….arrrggh….its like people think they need to chuck a few in just for good measure. The school I went to many moons ago has now become completely “high tech” (their words on all the radio adverts) and they do every single lesson on iPads. No writing, no spelling practice…nothing hand written at all. I partly blame things like this. God only knows what those kids are going to do when they go onto college and unis and have to write with a pen or try to spell something without auto correct.
A restaurant local to me has a sign that says it is open 7 DAY’S! Arghh!
I am rubbish with grammar and such, however I think this might be the one i get right? lol
I absolutely hear you on this. It drives me up the wall! Some people just stick them before every “s”, I think that’s known as a “just in case” apostrophe! We should all be provided with red marker pens!
This week I saw some polyanthus plants on a market stall marked Polly’s. Now I’m not going to suggest the stallholder should have known that the plural should technically have been polyanthi, but I was sorely tempted to ask him if Polly had given her permission for her plants to be sold. He should have stuck to greengrocery – potaoe’s, tomatoe’s and aDvo’s are so much easier……
I am in complete agreement, drives me mad. My ten year old has started to point out grammatical errors when we’re out too.
As a fully paid up member of the grammar police, lol, I totally agree ;o)
It is infuriating, especially when written in a professional capacity. Something that irks me is the picture-captions on Facebook that have wrong spellings, i.e. your, instead of you’re. I know many people don’t notice but I do!
CJ x
Despite the English A level and Degree I have, I think this is one of my faults. I always have to think about apostrophe placement! It is annoying though when basic grammar or spelling is wrong! Their/they’re/there errors drive me insane!
Love a good rant. Hate bad grammar. Sends me into unreasonable apoplexy. Grrrr
Aaaargh. I completely agree. Do you know Lynne Truss’ book ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves?’ It’s all about apostrophes and such stuff! She encourages us all to go around with a marker pen and correct these things. I point them out to everybody in charge whenever I can. There is even a sign on my little one’s nursery this week – Red Nose’s For Sale! It drives me MAD every time I go there – more so because they’re teachers there!
I just giggled… HARD. Xx
This bothers me too, being a teacher! I saw a sign the other day that said open wed and thur’s! As well as a motorway tea van that was called tina’s tea’s! If ur going to pay for a sign to be printed at least check the spellings!