A news item much covered last week here in the UK was the demise of "The Apostrophe Society" - a literary pressure group that was set up to tackle what became known as "The Grocer's Apostrophe", because of the proliferation of shop signs saying things like "Tomato's", and "Potato's", and "Karen's Bit's and Bob's at Bargain Price's". The founder said he had given up, in the face of widespread misuse of the apostrophe, and the lack of apparent interest by large corporations and public bodies. What a shame.
One of my favourite examples of misuse is "RESIDENTS REFUSE TO BE PUT IN THE BINS", which should, of course, be "Residents' refuse to be put in the bins." One tiny little apostrophe making the difference between a protest by residents who do not want to be put in a bin and an imploring notice by a building owner about how residents deal with their rubbish.
I happen to be reading Giles Brandreth's book "Have you eaten Grandma?", his very funny tome on the use and misuse of punctuation, grammar and good English. So, here's a homage to the humble apostrophe, and let's hope someone else takes up the cudgel on behalf of it!
@cocobella Corinne, yes, it's a struggle. The apostrophe indicates possession or omission. As in "Peter's car", and "I don't know". After that, it gets complicated... š
I can see why he gave up - even though it's very sad. There are just so many ridiculous examples that you meet nearly every day that you have to tune out or go mad.....
I read it with great interest. At my level, this is a big problem. Sometimes, reading the comments, I wonder what the author meant. And I ordered the book.
@haskar It's difficult enough for native English speakers, it must be a nightmare for those learning the language. I hope you enjoy the book. He is very "English" and so is his sense of humour! š
agree, apostrophe and comma are so important, can change the whole meaning of a sentence.
Pity it is getting lost, makes reading so difficult, not to mention the spelling ........
Great narrative. I had read about the demise of the society and was very sorry too. Nowadays a problem with apostrophes is created by the automatic corrector. Have you noticed that the its is ALWAYS changed to itās? For those interesting in punctuation there is another pleasant book by Lynne Truss: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. By the way, Iām going to buy the Giles Brandethās book!
@caterina Yes, I've read the Lynne Truss book, very funny and educational. I agree about autocorrect, a horrible invention. I'm sure you'll enjoy Giles. š
@caterina Haha, well, it would except that I used the form "the Lynne Truss book" so it's a descriptive phrase, "the black car", "the very large elephant", "the nice bottle of lemonade", "the Lynne Truss book".... Who said English was easy?
@caterina Trussās book *is* a fun diversion. I have belatedly come to this post via the āapostropheā tag because I have a problem with signs and labels in the U.S. that use the apostrophe in the place of the proper āprimeā symbol for measurements in feet. See https://365project.org/rhoing/365/2022-05-30 and the links I used!
January 9th, 2023
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Ian
Pity it is getting lost, makes reading so difficult, not to mention the spelling ........