Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

It drives me mad - what does? - an apostrophe being shoved in before the S when a word is a plural.

Take the word greengrocer, that's singular, but if there are 2 of them they are greengrocers. Greengrocer's means "belonging to the greengrocer" and if it belongs to both of them it becomes greengrocers'.

Right, so stop doing it or I'll start on about you're and your and there, they're and their. :rolleyes: :D

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

I could sit on this thread all night. :D

It annoys me when people put an apostrophe in a plural or any word that ends with 's'

For example, thank's or photo's.

There is a lot of it about too, more than there used to be.

At least that's how it seems to me.

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

I agree Lilly and think you are an school English teacher aren't you?:D


"Old aunt's used to come up to me at wedding's, poking me in the rib's, cackling and telling me
'You'll be next.' They stopped when I started doing the same to them at funeral's."

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

Arrrrgggh!! Margaret, you little tinker! How dare you deface my signature! :eek::D

I am not an English teacher. I could have been, I should have been but I'm not.

I'm just someone who is a stickler for spelling and grammar. :)

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whats' up with you grumpys' :p

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Iput it down to falling standards in education.Wait for a few more years when todays younger generation have converted the written english language to text type,goodness knows how many letters could become obsolete & punctuation possibly a thing of the past:eek:

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

I was fetched up i' Church and edicated i' Ossy.
Where where you Lilly when I wanted you?

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i laughed the other day when someone on my facebook contact list from a mummy forum put this as her status..."does anyone home educate there kids cos i need advice"

my advice??? leave it to the professionals lol

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One out of ten for knowing there should be an apostrophe somewhere.
See me. :D

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We are schizophrenic dyslexics, and always argue where the apostophes should go.

I say if in doubt leave it out.

I say otherwise.

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I go along with the falling standards,but have you tried telling that to the powers that be.
I had 7 GCE's when I was 15.OK they were only O levels, but now from my observations and looking at the watered down versions that apply to examinations now this generation will be drawing the OAP before they reach that standard and sadly it is not their fault.:confused::confused:

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

Seen on a door in a nursing home: 'Resident's Dining Room'

If the aberrant apostrophe annoys you how about could of, would of, should of ?

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

Language is an evolving beast and what was correct in yesteryear may not be correct today.

Years ago a quotation was enclosed in double quotes. Nowadays single quotes are favoured.

What about its and it’s? “It’s mine.” Is correct because the apostrophe denotes one or more missing letters. “The dog has gone to have its dinner” is also correct. Yet Peter’s dinner would be correct.

Pseudo plurals create arguments. The plural of virus, octopus and hippopotamus has always been viruses, octopuses and hippopotamuses yet the modern version seems to be virii (sometimes written as viri), octopi and hippopotami.

Cactus, fungus, nucleus. Any more?

See AskOxford: What are the plurals of 'octopus', 'hippopotamus', 'syllabus'? for loads of infromation.

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The use of HAS and HAVE also annoy me.

Everytime I go past Oscar Bears nursery on Blackburn Rd it annoys me

Oscar Bears have vacancies.

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To be honest, if I were to list all the grammatical errors that annoy me, the post would be massive. I only picked out one of the worst to make my point but every example that others have brought up, so far, is valid and they all set my teeth on edge.

Another, heard very much in this area, is "You was" and "They was" instead of the correct "were". :mad:

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"How dare you deface my signature" is a question and should have a question mark at the end of the sentence. There should also be a comma between "been" and "but".

Must try harder! :D

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Ah, it's so good to find other pedants, nit-picking away, just like me. :)

See you in the staff room, Mr Harris. :D

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Thats clear enough............we have seats for bums. no dots or dashes.
Plain and simple. :)
The word 'Vacancies' would also apply?

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:DWowzer! I am impressed! :D

I take your first point on board and can only offer my most humble apologies.

I'm not convinced about the second point though.

Fifteen years ago when I was at school I was taught that a comma was not necessary before a conjunction. Clearly it was different in your day. :p:D

It's great that we are having this conversation though. I don't know what they teach kids about commas these days.

It all seems to be txt spk now. :rolleyes:

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Oh dear Benepete! The irony!

Or did you make that mistake deliberately then? :D

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pedantic people set my teeth on edge, least they did when i had em, what the hells it matter? so long as ya can understand people n they aren't insulting ya, whats the big deal?:rolleyes:

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The big deal is that Beni was commenting on todays education system and made the same mistake ! It's that easy!

Was meant as a little bit of humour cashy, hence the smiley.;)

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It's common sense. If someone doesn't make the effort to write using correct English, the effort "saved" by not giving a sh*t has to be recuperated somewhere, and that effort comes from the reader.

If you text someone lazily, it's a one-on-one communication and they'll either accept your message or ignore it if it's not worth it.

Forum messages, though, might be read by dozens. What you're basically saying is that your reluctance to write "you" instead of "ya" and "and" instead of "n" means your time is more valuable than the cumulative time of all the accywebbers who try to make sense of your message?

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Oh dear Cosser you could have got my name right.:tongueout

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Haha bonipate! :D

We were talking apostrophes, lol. And I wasn't criticising the education system for getting wrong what you did!;) :D

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Don't think it matters on a messageboard, as long as you're not totally incomprehensible, and my comments on Lilly's post were tongue-in-cheek, anyway. I think it does matter in printed material like brochures, magazines etc, where misprints look totally unprofessional.

Incidentally, Caz, I hate to be the one to say it, but shouldn't your signature say "Formerly known as Cazzer"? Or do you just go by the name Cazzer when you dress up in your posh frock? ;)

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

I've posted this in the past. For those who haven't seen it before, have a read:

The Importance of Correct Punctuation


Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours?
Gloria

Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

Lol, Mick put that in, not me! :eek: Hadn't noticed, shall have to correct it.

The point I was trying to make in a friendly way was, these mistakes are so easy to make, but if you insist on being a pedant about these things, make sure you get it correct yourself. :D:D

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no i'm saying its a local message board NOT Eton.:tongueout

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Must admit Lilly, I probably wouldn't have put a question mark at the end of this ... mainly because I wouldn't have expected an answer.. :D

I make loads of mistakes on words when putting up a post, and notice them when it's too late. Probably put far too many commas in at times, but just try to do it so it make sense to the reader.

Don't forget also, that most people do not touch type, and can be very difficult to get a post through and understand Cashy's use of 'n' ... would probably take him all night to do a post, and prefer to have his comments sooner than later. ;)

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes
 

Just to show that punctuation can be made easy. The late, great Victor Borge reads it phonetically. :D


YouTube - Victor Borge Phonetic Pronunciation

Re: Greengrocers' Apostrophes