So what’s up with this? I see it everywhere on the net. As in my cheeky thread title. The two dog’s, the three cat’s. Since when did the difference between the written plural and possessive become so commonly muddled? To my eye, the possessive force of the apostrophe is so strong, I could never mistake the two. And honestly, I see this much more commonly from UK writers (uh, writer’s) than elsewhere, and not just purveyors (uh, purveyor’s) of textspeak.
Is there a wave of orthographic mis-generalization - a pernicious plague of peppering particularly inappropriate apostrophes - sweeping the sceptered isles (uh, isle’s) that the rest of us should know about?
A’s the 'son of an Engli’sh profe’s’sor, I am frankly, appalled. When did we 'stop teaching how to properly write Engli’sh? Everybody know’s that ‘s’'s are preceeded by apo’strophe’s.
(Serious note: that was infuriating (and infuriatingly difficult) to type out. Also, it was funny to encounter a situation where an apostrophe was genuinely needed…)
I have been known to typo a misplaced apostrophe as if by autopilot, then see it later when I’m rereading a thread. I am, of course, always chagrined.
But I also observe that weird usage frequently in (for example) hand-lettered signs by the roadside where someone’s advertising that he’ll buy used “car’s” and “truck’s.”
Clearly, not a typo.
I don’t know why people do that. Something like saying “The pigeon let loose on Martha and I.” The speaker has been corrected in his past for not putting “Martha and I” in contexts where it’s actually correct, and–not understanding the reason–mistakenly tries too hard to be correct henceforth…incorrectly. I imagine that wrong apostrophe usage has a similar story.
I considered bringing this up awhile ago when there was an article about someplace in England arguing over whether or not to remove the apostrophes from street names–they apparently just “confuse” people (exactly how, I’m not sure). So, St. John’s Place would just be St. Johns Place. Purists were up in arms.
Apparently, according to Wikipedia, misuse is so widespread in the UK that there’s a term “greengrocer’s apostrophes” - or greengrocers apostrophe’s - to describe it (and “greengrocer” is definitely not a common American word).
I come across all sorts of mangled English on hand-lettered signs here, but not the apostrophe problem so much. As a linguist, I wonder what it is in Britain that’s driving the hypercorrection.
Shouldn’t that have been “greengrocers’ apostrophes”, especially if the condition is common to most or all greengrocers?
I don’t know why but, Firefox won’t let me type a quotation or apostrophe unless I follow this by pressing the Space bar, so these marks are, perforce, a deliberate act for me.
And if we were to eliminate the apostrophe altogether, what would we rename Frank’s album to?
Yep, they are Greengrocers Apostrophes, indeed.
The drive for hypercorrection is the decline in education. This in turn has been fuelled by the relentless testing which the UK powers decided some years ago were necessary for some reason. A naive observer might imagine that testing would improve educational standards rather than diminish them. This not so, when SATS and School ratings take precedence over inspiring the children. The latest analysis, which has been three years in the preparation, is a definite rejection of the excessive testing which has dogged the education system in the UK recently. As far as the Parents are concerned, it’s not just primary education either.
(UK Primary = US Elementary)
I have always been one for putting apostrophes in wrong places. Only recently did I work out that when it belongs to someone eg. John’s apple. it is Johns own apple. At least that is how I remember it now… I am 22 and still don’t know if I do apostrophes right or wrong!?!
I think I was among the first to have SATS test at really early ages, I think I did pretty well, but I don’t remember learning much.
I believe that’s indicative that your keyboard is set to a Euro/International mode. For kicks, try hitting the ’ followed by an e and see if it tosses an accent on the e.
Personally, I think it is partly do to the pronouns that make the rule seem inconsistent. Of course this is due to contractions like it’s for it is. If we eliminated contractions (which are arguably more conversational and should not be in proper writing any way) I think that we could bring consistency and improve writing.
You may be in a different keyboard mode. This happens when I am in the International English mode. If I type an apostrophe and then a vowel, I get an accented version of the vowel.
Re: British placenames, people have noted that the London underground has “Earl’s Court” and “Barons Court” nearly next to each other.
Yes, the keyboard setting seems to be based on Windows’ language setting. “Canadian” includes the built-in function to type accented characters in case you want to switch back and forth from English to French. I just wanted it for spelling, but I guess I am gifted with this keyboard glitch as well.
- to describe it (and “greengrocer” is definitely not a common American word).