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Interesting, Tyke - I have never come across the cold/curled pronunciation. That would probably throw me!

I know many people who think the supermarket chain is called Tescos - understandable in a way as we have Sainsburys and Morrisons.

NB No apostrophes were used in the making of this post, deliberately.

Hope your new role as Apostrophe Lady is not proving too onerous Malone - sounds a bit like painting the Forth Bridge!

Tyke, my eyebrows get a good work-out most days - raised when I spot missing or rogue apostrophes on my travels.

As we're in PU … painting the Forth Bridge is no longer a never-ending task. I think this is due to new paint or a new coating, something like that.

Malone

Congratulations on your apostrophe-free posting, difficult when writing about these companies. It reminds me about the story that was written without using the letter "e".

Sainsburys (as we call the company) brand themselves in 4 different ways, Sainsbury's/Sainsburys/Sainsbury/ J Sainsbury when referring to their stores/website/on-line shopping/stock market.

None of these is correct. It should be Sainsburys' as it was a family business run by several members called Sainsbury, who I think still run it!

Three times today I've heard someone on TV using "begs the question" to mean "requires the question". That's not what it means! It means assuming the answer to the question while asking it.

ChrisE, that 'begs the question' doesn't bother me as much as many other things. I think here it's a case of (originally) erroneous usage becoming so widespread that the new usage becomes normalised. We may not like it, but things change. Even Chambers includes 'to raise an issue for debate' as one of the definitions of 'beg the question'. There's an added 'non-standard', of course!

When you heard the phrase on television today, your immediate thought was 'that's not what it means' - but to many others, that WAS what it meant. Once generations of people have assumed a word means something and it's been used in a certain way for decades, there's very little we can do to reclaim the original use.

Jigjag, thanks for the detailed information on the store started by J Sainsbury. What chance do we, the public, have when the company has four names for itself? I think the safest thing to do is to shop only in Waitrose - that's always just Waitrose, none of this Tescos/Tesco's, Sainsbury's/Sainsburys stuff. Nobody ever goes to Waitrose's/Waitroses.

That reminds me of Denise from The Royle Family saying 'It was from Bootses.'

May I join this club please (I know I can, but I’m asking if I may) Is it (pet hate) for free?

Of course you may join us, Marca. There are no subscriptions, annual member fee, anything like that - it's deffo * for free *.

I'm adopting the * as a special PU indicator, illustrating pet hates.