From the Oxford Style Guide: do not use an apostrophe to make a plural, even with a word/phrase that is not usually written in the plural or which appears clunky. All of the following examples take an s as normal in English to make their plurals: Three videos for a tenner. I trust all the MPs. Clothes were colourful in the 1970s. CDs will soon be obsolete. This is a list of dos and don’ts.
@Finity - One of my freshman English teachers encouraged us not to use apostrophes with numbers or acronyms, even though some of the reference books at the time said it was okay. I've avoided it ever since.
@ordinarybutloud - In Terry Pratchett's books, grocer's speak with stray apostrophe's, based on the propensity for grocery signs to have those kinds of error's.
You don't suppose he did that on purpose, though, do you?
That is funny! Sign's and Graphic's!! I wonder what Ms Sign and Mr. Graphic have to sell. Not Chevrolet surely.
That was a tough one. In the photo they are so small I almost missed the apostrophes.
Oh, Florida.
Maybe it's a partnership, and Mr. Card handle's half the business while Mr. Sign handle's the other half's?
@carolinavenger - 727 is a Tampa metro area code. Tampa isn't Florida. I evicted it last year. Just saying.
Sign's, sign's, everywhere a sign's, blocking out the scenery breakin' my mind. Some people just "don't" understand "punctuation". "So it goes", said a guy who had an irrational hatred for semicolons. Myself, I like semicolons; the most succinct way ever invented to say half-assed. I proudly offer the quality of this comment as proof!
BUT! He did get your attention pretty well. So, for message-sending he gets an A...the quality of the message received is a different story.
Greengrocer's apostrophe. Sigh.
geez...
Grammar is important and has to be respected if we want to keep the meaning of a sentence :!! I wonder how I dare say that with my poor English! In friendship michel
RYC : age of the Sophora tree ? I always knew it . it is at least 50 years old .
Apostrophes look chic in signs. We don't have this problem in Italian to make plurals,we have much worse.
I guess I share your sentiments as well. I don't know why people call you a grammar Nazi if you enjoy seeing proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Maybe Mr. Sign and Ms. Graphic co-own the truck. It's possible.
@TutelageOfTheMundane - If attention is all they want, they got it. In the same vein, I wonder what kind of person pulls out of traffic at the behest of a guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and waving a sign. There are businesses in my community that advertise that way, but I would be very unlikely to patronize them.
I agree with you.
That is my pet peeve!
Kind of sad isn't it? I see that boldly advertised illiteracy and I wonder what education is this country is coming to. I blame Sponge Bob and the like sucking the intelligence right out of our kids.
Good god that makes me livid, as a graphic designer....
@Ampbreia - the biggest problem with spelling and grammar is the Whole Language educational approach, in which kids aren't taught spelling or language rules much at all.
@Roadkill_Spatula - That's very true. The only reason way kids managed to learn spelling and grammar was because I taught it to them at home. The school didn't.
thats outrageou's! why would you 'slander him 'so?
this kind of thing drives me nuts. it seems to be getting worser as the years go by, doesn't it?
Comments (39)
lol...
so unfortunate that he specializes in sign's.
Haha!
Don't blame you one bit...
I'd definitely have him redo it!!!
@ordinarybutloud - I want a tattoo that says "Knowlege is power"
@Roadkill_Spatula - knowlege is' power
I posted this on Facebook today around 1:
From the Oxford Style Guide:
do not use an apostrophe to make a plural, even with a word/phrase that is not usually written in the plural or which appears clunky. All of the following examples take an s as normal in English to make their plurals:
Three videos for a tenner.
I trust all the MPs.
Clothes were colourful in the 1970s.
CDs will soon be obsolete.
This is a list of dos and don’ts.
@Finity - One of my freshman English teachers encouraged us not to use apostrophes with numbers or acronyms, even though some of the reference books at the time said it was okay. I've avoided it ever since.
@ordinarybutloud - In Terry Pratchett's books, grocer's speak with stray apostrophe's, based on the propensity for grocery signs to have those kinds of error's.
That's awful.
@Roadkill_Spatula - I like this teacher buckets and buckets.
rofl...I wouldn't either.
@Finity - He was an honors professor.
It hurt's to read that!
You don't suppose he did that on purpose, though, do you?
That is funny! Sign's and Graphic's!! I wonder what Ms Sign and Mr. Graphic have to sell. Not Chevrolet surely.
That was a tough one. In the photo they are so small I almost missed the apostrophes.
Oh, Florida.
Maybe it's a partnership, and Mr. Card handle's half the business while Mr. Sign handle's the other half's?
@carolinavenger -
727 is a Tampa metro area code. Tampa isn't Florida. I evicted it last year. Just saying.
Sign's, sign's, everywhere a sign's, blocking out the scenery breakin' my mind. Some people just "don't" understand "punctuation". "So it goes", said a guy who had an irrational hatred for semicolons. Myself, I like semicolons; the most succinct way ever invented to say half-assed. I proudly offer the quality of this comment as proof!
BUT! He did get your attention pretty well. So, for message-sending he gets an A...the quality of the message received is a different story.
Greengrocer's apostrophe. Sigh.
geez...
Grammar is important and has to be respected if we want to keep the meaning of a sentence :!! I wonder how I dare say that with my poor English!
In friendship
michel
RYC : age of the Sophora tree ? I always knew it . it is at least 50 years old .
Apostrophes look chic in signs. We don't have this problem in Italian to make plurals,we have much worse.
I guess I share your sentiments as well. I don't know why people call you a grammar Nazi if you enjoy seeing proper grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Maybe Mr. Sign and Ms. Graphic co-own the truck. It's possible.
@chromepoet - You never know.
@TutelageOfTheMundane - If attention is all they want, they got it. In the same vein, I wonder what kind of person pulls out of traffic at the behest of a guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and waving a sign. There are businesses in my community that advertise that way, but I would be very unlikely to patronize them.
I agree with you.
That is my pet peeve!
Kind of sad isn't it? I see that boldly advertised illiteracy and I wonder what education is this country is coming to. I blame Sponge Bob and the like sucking the intelligence right out of our kids.
Good god that makes me livid, as a graphic designer....
@Ampbreia - the biggest problem with spelling and grammar is the Whole Language educational approach, in which kids aren't taught spelling or language rules much at all.
@Roadkill_Spatula - That's very true. The only reason way kids managed to learn spelling and grammar was because I taught it to them at home. The school didn't.
thats outrageou's! why would you 'slander him 'so?
this kind of thing drives me nuts. it seems to be getting worser as the years go by, doesn't it?