Aaarrrgghhh!

There is a man who goes around righting signs on shops that have erroneous apostrophes.

This should be good for a page or two. Just don’t mention sofas

I think it's mainly because of people using phones to write on and not noticing that they've been 'autocorrected' incorrectly.

But MOT's drive me wild. As does 'it's' (contraction of 'it is') when it should be 'its' (possessive pronoun). I see it all the time on twitter and even teachers do it

I think people misused apostrophes long before texting came on the scene. I can't understand why people can't learn the rules. Not that hard is it?

For some people it is, yes.

I don't get my knickers in a twist if people get grammar wrong but their meaning is still crystal clear. What does annoy me is when the meaning is being obscured, confused or ambiguous because it is not expressed properly.

There are a couple of regulars on GN who don't use any punctuation at all. Why should I spend twice as long trying to make sense of their posts? As soon as I see their names come up, I skip to the next one.

Sparklefizz Not so much grammar but posts that are hugely long without any paragraphs I find impossible to plough through.

I know there should have been a couple of commas in there. Slapped wrist.

I make mistakes in spelling, punctuation, grammar, either I don’t post or some can ignore my posts and ridicule me and others , I will continue to post ?

Oh dear I sometimes skip the punctuation. Just laziness I suppose. ?.
Apostrophes in the wrong places annoy me slightly. Better in some cases to leave it out if you're not sure.

We all make mistakes, especially when predictive text takes over, that's no problem, but (as Framilode says) hugely long posts with no paragraphs, and no fullstops or any punctuation, just a tsunami of words - life's too short to try and make sense of it. Sorry.

I didn’t know there were rules on GN for punctuation

Yes I like paragraphs. If I am emailing a letter to a friend each topic is a separate paragraph with a line space in between. much more pleasant to read and looks better.

I like paragraphs, but I am upset to read ‘ I can’t understand why people can’t learn the rules’, this was said about apostrophes, perhaps posters have bigger problems and more important things going on in their lives than taking time out ‘to learn’

As soon as I see their names come up, I skip to the next one

Charming (with or without !)

But oh to be so perfect.......sigh.....

I wish I had nothing else to worry about except punctuation and learning “the rules” .

gilly there you are ?

"Don't get me started"- so why start a thread then?

Hi Annie

I never really went away for good, just took a bit of a break to gather my thoughts.....

Anniebach I didn't mean to imply that all grammar and punctuation rules should be adhered to on GN. My post intended to say that people have been finding the apostrophe rule difficult for as long as I can remember a d I didn't think the use of phones was the only cause. I'm sure I make mistakes when posting and certainly meant no offence to anyone.

Oh, forgive me Gillybob and Annie ... I thought this was Pedants' Corner.

By the way, it's not a hanging offence, is it, to skip a thread when one can't be bothered to decipher it when it's just one long sentence? If the writer can't be bothered to stick in the odd comma and full stop ..... even, maybe, a new paragraph .... then why should I bother to read it? I'm allowed that choice, I believe.

No, not a hanging offence at all Sparkle. Not a hanging offence to put a ! in the wrong place either.

Imagine someone sharing/ typing a heart felt post only to be reminded of bad punctuation ? Not very nice.

gilly Well, I would never be that rude or insensitive to do that, and never have, but I am not the only person to say that long rambling posts without punctuation are a nightmare to read.

Not sure what your comment re the exclamation mark refers to, but never mind.