Today is International Apostrophe Day!

A little bit late to the party but I came across this well-weathered horror during a walk in Hampshire a few days ago.

I hadn't noticed the typos, so they are not obvious - or I am losing my perceptive instinct.

And I just accidentally hit 'post' rather than 'preview', so please ignore the obvious typos above !

I can see what you are saying, Elegan, but while I accept that reading a wide range of styles is very positive in many ways, I still don't think that that alone improves the average reader's grammar. In my own experience, I would say that it only made a huge different to my own language after I had acquired a sound grammatical framework, and, for me, that didn't come from reading alone.

I am saying this as someone who was a prolific reader as a child, but who was only taught very basic (primary-level) grammar at school, and whose grammar only improved when I went back into education as an adult. D
To put this into perspective, despite my love of reading, I had no idea how to use the apostrophe until I was in my late twenties.

But we are all, different, so I can accept that my own experience isn't necessarily the same as everyone else's.

I disagree, Oldnproud. They may not be consciously noticing and remembering the actual writing of what they read, but it is all being scanned by the eyes and transferred into the brain, and has been shown to be recalled under hypnosis. From what we read we get not just the details of the plot and characters, but also of the author's attitude to what the characters are doing and saying, of what it must be like to live in the area in which the story is set, of the meaning in context of words which we have not met before (one of the most common way of learning new words after the first few years of life) and how the author has spelt each word and used them in sentences with other words and other concepts.

If we read nothing but classical authors like Walter Scott etc, our unconscious minds are full of long convoluted sentences with impeccable grammar and spelling. If we read only comic books, they are full of short exclamations - Pow!! - Whew!! - with very little construction with one clause being dependent upon another, and a narrow use of grammatical devices like apostrophes to show how one word or clause relates to another.

Hopeful authors are often told to read widely, reading all kinds of books and writings. That is how you absorb how to use our very expressive language.

How depressing, Elegran and Oldnproud.
Fortunately my son, who also had a state education, is as much of an apostrophe pedant as I am.

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m probably the same generation as you and I was properly taught (in state schools). Also, people read - don’t they take note of spelling and grammar when doing so?

Seriously, no, I don't think that the average person takes any notice of spelling and grammar when reading. It is different if they already have a good grasp of those things, as the eye is good at spotting things that do not conform to the rules that have already been learnt, but I strongly believe that the average reader sees nothing more than the story / message / information in the text.

It is going to get progressively worse over the next few generations. All the youngsters who communicate mostly by texting and spend far more time reading social media than they do reading books or magazine articles by grammar-capable journalists will grow up having absorbed their knowledge of the language from sources where "the grammar police" is an insult. Some of them will become teachers - but not of English as we know it.

Today is international apostrophe day!

Is it really?
Who knew

I’m probably the same generation as you and I was properly taught (in state schools). Also, people read - don’t they take note of spelling and grammar when doing so?

Germanshepherdsmum

I often wonder what people were taught in school, that they believe an apostrophe is always needed if referring to more than one item. Boxe’s, potatoe’s, tomatoe’s, chair’s, table’s. Did the teacher’s never correct their mistake’s?

When my sons were in secondary education (1990s), it was clear from school reports that even some of their teachers hadn't learned how to use apostrophes. They were probably of the same generation as I am, and I was taught no grammar whatsoever in secondary school. Luckily, I had the chance to improve mine at a later stage when studying foreign languages, but many people of my generation never got that sort of opportunity.

mos=most

Must remember preview.

I admit confusion. I'll write it is mos every time.

We own Parson Terrier breed, however there seems an occasional need for an s or 's - I can't work that out.

I often wonder what people were taught in school, that they believe an apostrophe is always needed if referring to more than one item. Boxe’s, potatoe’s, tomatoe’s, chair’s, table’s. Did the teacher’s never correct their mistake’s?

Thank goodness it isn’t only me !
why is it. that words ending in ‘s’ are seen as requiring an apostrophe ; my brain jangles whilst attempting to decipher such nonsense

Well done, GrandTante!
There are a lorra lorra plural's there, all begging for their apostrophe's.

(Crikey, there was a battle going on with my spellchecker, which would NOT accept the final apostrophe without a fight🏅)

grumppa

Thank you for the reminder, grandtanteJE65, that today is a national holiday in France. I remember being surprised and delighted when I found out, aged 16, in Paris.

And most definitely also in Spain, where absolutely everything is closed except the restaurants where proud parents are celebrating their child's First Communion with the entire family of grandparents, godparents, cousins of the First Communicant, friends and neighbours having a marvellous time.

And I have done it again! All apostrophes present and correct. I just CANNOT bring myself to misplace them.

Years ago, when shopping at a big, local market was the norm, I decided that I'd boycott stalls where apostrophes ran rampant. <<Glove's>> was one I remember well.
However, it soon became clear that if I held to that standard I'd never buy food again and would always have cold hands.

I'm sure there used to be an Apostrophe Society, and I belonged to it, but my membership must have laps'd by now.

Although my grammar and spelling are pretty good, thanks to a rigorous, tawse-aided early primary education in Scotland, I never learned much about the semi-colon and his sister, the colon. I confess to sprinkling them according to self-created rules. I keep meaning to buy an English grammar book - does such a thing exist as an English grammar book for native English speakers?

Elegran

Oldnproud

Whats the big deal with apostrophe's? 😁

The real purpose of an apostrophe historically is to mark a place in a word where one or more letters have been deliberately missed out. The patriotic song "Scots wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled . ." has letters left out from the words "have and "with".

Medieval lawyer's Latin was peppered with abbreviations using the things, as anyone is aware who has tried to work out for their family tree what an ancestor's will from the Tudor or Jacobean era is all about, and the original Domesday Book uses them a lot - for instance "p'sh" is the scribes shorthand for parish.

They are still in words that show possession - "Gilbert's house" would originally have been something like "Gilbertis house". Used correctly the should not be used in, say "The houses were painted white", because the sentence is not about something belonging to the house, but about the plural of house - one house, more houses. The possessive form would have once had more letters, but the plain plural would not.

"Don't" is an abbreviation of "do not", similarly with words like couldn't and didn't - letters left out and the gaps marked with apostrophes.

"Its" and "it's" seem as though they don't follow the rule, but one of them does.. "It's" has lost a letter from "it is", so it has the apostrophe to replace it, but in this case the possessive "its" doesn't have the apostrophe. There is always one that wants to be awkward!

My post was tongue-in-cheek, Elegran - as were my two deliberate apostrophe-based errors in that post. 😁

Oldnproud

Whats the big deal with apostrophe's? 😁

The real purpose of an apostrophe historically is to mark a place in a word where one or more letters have been deliberately missed out. The patriotic song "Scots wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled . ." has letters left out from the words "have and "with".

Medieval lawyer's Latin was peppered with abbreviations using the things, as anyone is aware who has tried to work out for their family tree what an ancestor's will from the Tudor or Jacobean era is all about, and the original Domesday Book uses them a lot - for instance "p'sh" is the scribes shorthand for parish.

They are still in words that show possession - "Gilbert's house" would originally have been something like "Gilbertis house". Used correctly the should not be used in, say "The houses were painted white", because the sentence is not about something belonging to the house, but about the plural of house - one house, more houses. The possessive form would have once had more letters, but the plain plural would not.

"Don't" is an abbreviation of "do not", similarly with words like couldn't and didn't - letters left out and the gaps marked with apostrophes.

"Its" and "it's" seem as though they don't follow the rule, but one of them does.. "It's" has lost a letter from "it is", so it has the apostrophe to replace it, but in this case the possessive "its" doesn't have the apostrophe. There is always one that wants to be awkward!

I have spent about six hours on the motorway today. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at some of the presumably professionally sign-written vehicles that were littered with erroneous apostrophes.

Of all the wrongly-used apostrophes that I have ever seen, I think that one that most grated on me was in the word boxe's.
Maybe it's just me, but that simply looks so wrong that I still can't imagine how anyone could possibly think that it was correct.
That was a bad day. Every single cafe in that town was displaying menus with so many apostrophe-based errors that we ended up having to buy a sandwich from a supermarket. 😁
I'm not perfect though - I am pretty certain that I have left some errors (though not apostrophy-related) above.

Whats the big deal with apostrophe's? 😁

That's really worrying Grandmabatty perhaps there should be a prize for the largest number of unnecessary apostrophes.

I'm saying nothing

Signpost today outside a computer shop:

X Box's
Playstation's
P,C's
Laptops

Why, I wondered, did poor Laptops miss out on an apostrophe? Why did PCs get not only an apostrophe but a comma too?

I do need a new computer but I don't think I'll be shopping there