Someone (possibly
Chris) once asked me which I hate more, the use of unnecessary apostrophes, or missing ones. Both really get on my nerves, but for the former, it feels like the writer knows about the rules, but doesn't know how to apply them, whereas the latter smacks more of laziness. Or maybe it is just ignorance. Oh whatever, each scenario is as bad as the other!
The above example is a very common evil. I personally believe people do it to differentiate the "S" from the rest of the acronym (though I think that writing a lower case "s" solves that problem, as demonstrated in this post's title), while another argument offered to me once is that it's actually intended as an apostrophe of omission. I disagree with that analysis; in fact,
the relevant Wikipedia entry only mentions the acronym scenario in terms of plural forming and not to show omission, so the internet agrees with me! I suppose you could argue that an acronym is a form of abbreviation, but I can't be bothered to go there right now because I think that argument would be a stretch, and anyway, in my oh-so vaunted opinion, the above example is just plain incorrect.
You'll have to click on the image to be able to see what I'm pointing out here, but let me just say, that is not the kind of error you'd expect to see on a website of PayPal's calibre. It lowers the tone and smacks of laziness and unprofessionalism.
I don't know about you, but whenever I read something that's missing a question mark, I mentally hear it in a flat monotone, without the all important end of sentence "lift" given by the punctuation. But that's just me, I am rather odd. Anyway, it just really grates. How could they have printed this huge sign without noticing the absence of question marks?
I'm inclined to think that the writer of this sign didn't know where to place the apostrophe and therefore took the coward's way out and left it out entirely. Let me help you, Bakery. There is unfortunately more than one smoker in Perth. So you can expect many smokers to come to your venue. In that case, place the apostrophe after the 's', as per the rules regarding plural possessives. Gah. Don't they teach grammar in schools anymore?
The offending image in my previous post actually came from this shop. A double-whammy! Chris noticed this howler, while I just blundered into the shop thinking "ooh, CDs" without even looking at the name, as is my way on occasion.
Someone (possibly Chris) once asked me which I hate more, the use of unnecessary apostrophes, or missing ones. Both really get on my nerves, but for the former, it feels like the writer knows about the rules, but doesn't know how to apply them, whereas the latter smacks more of laziness. Or maybe it is just ignorance. Oh whatever, each scenario is as bad as the other!
Oh, American spelling is such a mixed bag. I grudgingly accept the logic behind its existence, but I really feel that using it anywhere outside of the US (or Canada, for some words) is completely unacceptable. It's possible that the writer of this sign is actually American, which would make the crime a little less heinous, but considering this photo was taken in small town Western Australia (Bridgetown, to be specific), I'd say the chances are slim. Besides which, the inclusion of a superfluous apostrophe in "Tees" is enough to raise my ire, so the writer would be in my bad books anyway.
