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Apostrophes... is it only me!?!?

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Grammatical mistakes in general annoy me.

From apostrophe misuse, to poor spelling, to incorrect punctuation, to incorrect word choice; honestly, I don't see how it's so hard for people to get correct.

The greengrocer's apostrophe is another favourite: people putting an apostrophe before the 's' in plurals, e.g. apple's. For God's sake, it's simple stuff, yet it's seemingly so difficult for some.
There is a thread at the moment on here about Opinion's.

That one annoys me every time someone posts and it appears on the front page as the latest thread posted on.

It catches my eye every single time.

:frown:
Reply 22
Original post by Bobbi!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a punctuation Goddess.... I sometimes even miss out apostrophes and spell words wrong when I'm writing quickly (sometimes even write letters backwards if i'm really rushed and not concentrating...)

BUT it bothers me when people misuse apostrophes!! I understand that some people don't know how to use use them, and that's fine... for non-professionals.

I work in a college and constantly see signs put up by tutors or emails with apostrophes that shouldn't be there... and this really bugs me as it is supposed to be a place of education right??

Maybe I should just let it go. lol


I've had emails from universities that misuse apostrophes throughout. One would have thought that Russell Group universities would know how to use apostrophes correctly, but perhaps not...

And I ended up in a big argument with some English students in my tutorial at college who were convinced that prospectus' was the correct plural of prospectus... Because that's exactly what apostrophes are for...
(Although they also all misused "effect" and "affect", which indicates that perhaps they're not the best English students ever.)
I don't find occasional grammar and spelling errors that annoying to be honest. As long as the meaning is still clear I am willing to forgive the odd misspelling or misplaced apostrophe. Frankly I find the people who attack every slight deviation against proper English as some heinous crime more annoying ...

When people's written communication is truly terrible however I do get frustrated - especially when I struggle just to understand what they mean. It isn't difficult to communicate clearly and you do wish sometimes that people would take a little more care in what they write.

The thread title reminded me of this Mitchell and Webb sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3y0CD2CoCs Shooting people for mispronouncing the letter h may be a little too far !
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 24
Original post by dendodge
I've had emails from universities that misuse apostrophes throughout. One would have thought that Russell Group universities would know how to use apostrophes correctly, but perhaps not...

And I ended up in a big argument with some English students in my tutorial at college who were convinced that prospectus' was the correct plural of prospectus... Because that's exactly what apostrophes are for...
(Although they also all misused "effect" and "affect", which indicates that perhaps they're not the best English students ever.)


Haha I agree! I emailed several universities (the majority of them Russell group) and many replied with 'thank you for you're email'.. sorry what!? Each of them weren't even considered after that..

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Reply 25
Original post by anna__
Haha I agree! I emailed several universities (the majority of them Russell group) and many replied with 'thank you for you're email'.. sorry what!? Each of them weren't even considered after that..

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I wouldn't let it stop me from applying to a university, but it did make me chuckle slightly. I guess they don't see the need to proof-read boilerplate templates sent to every one of their thousands of applicants every year :tongue:
Reply 26
Original post by dendodge
I wouldn't let it stop me from applying to a university, but it did make me chuckle slightly. I guess they don't see the need to proof-read boilerplate templates sent to every one of their thousands of applicants every year :tongue:


Aha we once found a letter from Margaret Thatcher at school once.. the number of grammatical errors was crazy though!

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Reply 27
I absolutely detest this too. What's worse is that they are going out of their way to ADD an unnecessary apostrophe, to feel like grammar gods! I wouldn't actually mind it as much if people just accepted they didn't know, and missed out apostrophes altogether...

And don't get me started about the "I past my driving test" statuses on facebook :angry: I make a point of never 'liking' them... :rolleyes:
Reply 28
Original post by Harry Callahan
Grammatical mistakes in general annoy me.

From apostrophe misuse, to poor spelling, to incorrect punctuation, to incorrect word choice; honestly, I don't see how it's so hard for people to get correct.

The greengrocer's apostrophe is another favourite: people putting an apostrophe before the 's' in plurals, e.g. apple's. For God's sake, it's simple stuff, yet it's seemingly so difficult for some.


I think it may well be the publican's as much as the greengrocer's, my childhood was punctuated with incidents of my Mum ranting about incorrect use of apostrophes on blackboards outside pubs.

Also, might want to have a quick scan of your second paragraph again before jumping back on the old lofty equine :tongue:
Reply 29
Original post by kempykemp
How is texting and social networking destroying the youths' language skills?

I swear everyone I know just writes the same no matter the circumstances.


And now you just answered your question.
Original post by roh
I think it may well be the publican's as much as the greengrocer's, my childhood was punctuated with incidents of my Mum ranting about incorrect use of apostrophes on blackboards outside pubs.

Also, might want to have a quick scan of your second paragraph again before jumping back on the old lofty equine :tongue:

I've had a scan, but I can't find a mistake. Perhaps it's gone right over my head...
Reply 31
Original post by Harry Callahan


I don't see how it's so hard for people to get correct.



Suspect in your head you read it in, even though it wasn't there.

Spoiler

(edited 11 years ago)
As a dyslexic student it annoys me to no end!

Don't get me wrong, my grammar/spelling is far from perfect, but I try to put in the extra effort in order to get things like apostrophes right.

My current annoyance is American television using 'addicting' when they mean addictive. Grrr.


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YES it really annoys me as well! Its not like its even hard to place apostrophes correctly!
Original post by Pandabär
Don't even start me on there/their/they're. :colonhash:


Or "your" and "you're". :colonhash:
Reply 35
I find it laughable that some people have suggested that spelling plurals with an apostrophe is part of the changing language. Because adding another symbol into a word for literally no reason at all other than ignorance makes sense and is going to be possible to explain to children/non-native speakers.
Reply 36
I am not perfect with my spelling, but I get what you mean. I do it myself sometimes, but not on purpose. Although people who write "ur" instead of "your" etc annoy me more. :tongue:
Apostrophes would be a grammatical weak point for me definitely.

Okay, as said before "it's blue jumper" as in a blue jumper belonging to the dog, is "it's"

What about a place? Belfast's tourists attractions include???

Oh and if someone was called say, Fez, then would it be Fez' hat or Fez's hat?
Original post by roh
Suspect in your head you read it in, even though it wasn't there.

Spoiler



Interesting :smile:

I have put it in and it did seem correct but I am not unhappy with the absence.

Would you have preferred "get right".
Original post by Pandabär
Don't even start me on there/their/they're. :colonhash:


Just before we did our GCSE English exams, we had a lecture on this.:rolleyes: Oh, and we were second (technically third) set.

I have a friend who puts apostrophes everywhere and spells their (as in their school) as there. It's so tempting to correct her.

A relative of mine just types in text speak all the time. I just ignore everything she says. It's Facebook and it's not as if there's a character limit.

When I text someone, I always leave out apostrophes due to the character limit. When I had my Blackberry, it decided to correct me.:rolleyes:

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