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wendy

8th July 2011, 14:19
It’s so quiet around here, I thought I’d break away from crosswords for a few minutes. (Sorry if I offend Mrs. Grundy)

I’m sick and tired of seeing adverts etc. where the apostrophe is incorrectly placed, simply missing or the spelling is quite incorrect!

Occasionally, I take the trouble to point it out to the advertiser because, in my view, it makes them look silly. It usually falls on deaf ears though, because for some 2 years a local garden centre has had “spa’s for sale”.

Just up the road from me they have “Potato’s for sale” and next door to that we have “Egg’s for sale” and so on.

My question to you is, should we just accept that our language is changing (again) and get on with it?
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sallyw (aka - the original sallyw)

8th July 2011, 14:27
I suppose Wendy that languages evolve all the time, even in Shakespeares' time spelling etc was very fluid and I suppose that the use of punctuation marks is the same. I would rather see no apostrophe at all than one that's misplaced, but that's just me.
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helenb

8th July 2011, 14:56
I agree with you about misplaced apostrophes, but what gets my goat even more is mispronunciation e.g. drawring for drawing, haitch for aitch being two that spring instantly to mind there are others!
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sallyw (aka - the original sallyw)

8th July 2011, 15:07
Joolery for jewellery does my head in!
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sallyw (aka - the original sallyw)

8th July 2011, 15:17
Changing the subject, does it annoy you when people on this forum fail to acknowledge when someone has tried to help them? It takes seconds to post a thank you and is just good manners.
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pastille

8th July 2011, 15:41

A teacher once gave her class the following sentence,and told them to punctuate it any way they wanted.

a woman without her man is nothing


Most boys wrote:

A woman, without her man, is nothing.

Most girls wrote:

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Punctuation can be powerful...

I hope this is not an urban myth

p@
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dave

8th July 2011, 15:57
an interesting problem is to punctuate a sentence with 5 consecutive ANDs
any suggestions?
I will give the answer later
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aristophanes

8th July 2011, 15:59
Here in the States it's exasperatingly common to see surnames made plural with apostrophes. You'll see something like "The Smith's" posted at the bottom of a driveway. What's equally annoying is the failure to properly pluralize names that end with s; you'll see something like "The flowers were donated by the Simonds" or (far worse) "the Simond's". By the way, sallyw, I believe you've helped me, and I believe I've thanked you.
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pastille

8th July 2011, 16:00
MMMM Dave...

Interesting....mmmm
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aristophanes

8th July 2011, 16:16
I once consulted the law firm of And, And, And, and And (it was a rather drawn-out affair); the H was dropped when they came to the US, since there was a misunderstanding at Ellis Island.
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