GrammarBlog

apostrophecity, originally uploaded by the.kingfish.

We've hit the mother lode! Inappropriate capitalisation, misplaced apostrophes (of course) and quotation marks used for emphasis.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, quotation marks, randomised caps, signage, signs

Labels: apostrophe, apostrophe abuse, McCain, Obama, politics

When I see children's clothing adorned with phrases from the world of adults, I always feel slightly sick. Especially when the spelling and grammar are bad.

But I'm in two minds about this one. Is it a patronising, faintly tasteless and semi-literate statement describing the young chap's future predilection for womanising? Or is the grammar entirely deliberate: a clever subversion of the chauvinist cliché, affirming the boy's love for his mother and hinting at a future of monogamy, maturity and commitment? Have I been reading The Guardian a bit too much recently?

Thanks to Melissa Jaeger-Miller, who sent us this gem.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, babywear, photos, punctuation

Electronic'S - R - US, originally uploaded by Dan of Future's Past.

This is a horror show of a sign.

It always irks me how "toysRus" turned a repugnantly illiterate phrase into a brand name, so I obviously hate to see it copied. When combined with apostrophe abuse, this causes my eyelid to twitch à la the captain from Police Academy.

I post this in the knowledge that fellow GrammarBlogger Tom (should we begin to employ GrammarBlog as a surname when referring to a member of our fraternity?) will be horrified at yet another unwise application of the Bank Gothic typeface.

Labels: apostrophe, apostrophe abuse, bank gothic, marketing copy, punctuation, signage, Typography

Thanks go to Gary Pettecrew for sending us this photo, taken in Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Cotswolds.

Gary says, "I saw this and thought of you, GrammarBlog."

How sweet.

Labels: apostrophe abuse

Labels: apostrophe abuse, bands, camden crawl, fuckshovel, swearing, Wembley

This is just great.

I'm not suggesting that this mail box should be targeted by local youths for firework and/or urine attacks; I'm just saying I couldn't condemn them for doing so.

This photo was shamelessly "borrowed" from Apostrophe Abuse.

Related post: New's Agent

Labels: apostrophe abuse, photos

Hen Night Apostrophe Catastrophe, originally uploaded by *Huw*.

Following on from Tom's Newcastle-themed post, I thought I'd share this photo. It was recently added to our new Flickr group and according to its tag was taken here.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, newcastle, photos

this, originally uploaded by *ade.

Old GrammarBlog friend Ade wasn't taking any chances that we might miss this picture.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, photos, twitter

Bad Sign No. 2 : Sydenham High Street, originally uploaded by pomphorhynchus.

I have nothing more to say about this.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, photos

Before Christmas, I posted about the frightening use of apostrophes on MarloDee Designs' website. A few days ago we received notification of the following comment.

Hello! This is Marlo from MarloDee Designs. I think I have fixed all the punctuation errors on my website. Wow! I didn't mean to blind Heather. I did have a couple of people send me email's pointing out my faults(although the one sent to me was quite mean). But, maybe I deserved it. (oh by the way, I am in the process of redesigning two pages. So, if you visit again you will find that two of my pages will still have punctuation errors. I am sorry. I will have them corrected soon.) I didn't mean to offend anyone.

Does anyone else find this response disarmingly charming? The fact that in this comment Marlo makes the very same mistake for which she was lambasted just adds to the charm, in my opinion. (Marlo dear, simple plurals don't need an apostrophe so "email's" is incorrect.)

A brief glance at Marlo's website confirms that she has corrected many (although not all) of the errors, so we can take her off The List.

Marlo, thank you for your delightful comment, I am pleased you are trying to change your apostrophe abusing ways. As they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem and asking for help. I apologise for the over-exuberance of some of our readers but to stretch that A.A. analogy, think of their rudeness as an intervention.

Finally, to the over-zealous grammar vigilante who sent Marlo a nasty email: you should be ashamed of yourself. I know in the past I've alluded to firebombing and lynch-mobs but such endorsements are in jest... usually. A polite email would have been much more appropriate. Although having said that, these guys might benefit from a little letter bomb or two. Where's my bag of nails?

Related post: 'Tis the season to make new enemies

Labels: apostrophe abuse, crisis of faith, punctuation, redemption

Izzy was less than impressed when she noticed an error on the wrapper of her P-p-p-penguin.

"What do Penguin's have for lunch?"

I was about to eat this scrummy-looking Penguin bar when I noticed that there was a mistake. The answer, by the way, is 'Iceburg-ers'. Needless to say, this Penguin bar is about to be sent back to the company with a complaint.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, marketing copy, McVities, Packaging, Penguin, punctuation

New's Agent, originally uploaded by adactio.

Submitted via a direct Twitter message by Jeremy, who comments:

I thought you might like this one; by far the worst apostrophe abuse I have ever seen.

Also, what the hell does "sweet and things" mean?

Labels: apostrophe abuse, signage

Labels: apostrophe abuse, cinema, signage, spelling, Xmas

Labels: apostrophe abuse, bird in Corrie, dirty Wigan lass, grammar, guardian, you're, your

I happened upon this blog post from the Washington Post's transportation writer, Dr Gridlock. It is part of the paper's official blog.

...if you see an official looking sign at a bus shelter telling you that you can get a free ride if you're bus is late, it's a hoax.

[omitted text]

She wanted to alert riders so they don't get there hopes up about this.

Ok, it's over a year old but the main reason I'm posting this is that the comments are quite interesting. Among the commenters, two teams are quickly established; Team Grammar and Team Don't be so Picky. Team Grammar takes an early lead.

'... you can get a free ride if you're bus is late, it's a hoax.'
YOUR bus is late ...

Swiftly followed by,

'She wanted to alert riders so they don't get there hopes up about this.'
She wanted to alert riders so they don't get *their* hopes up about this.

Grammar nazis--stay home.

Posted by: IggyPop | October 26, 2006 12:59 PM

 

grammar nazis need not apply

Posted by: | October 26, 2006 12:59 PM

 

Grammar Afficionados WELCOME.

If we can't depend on the press to use our language correctly, we're doomed.

Posted by: | October 26, 2006 01:07 PM

 

Afficionados is snob language for jerk; two people agreed that the term grammar nazis was appropriate at the exact same time. Case closed!

Posted by: | October 26, 2006 01:09 PM

 

You have to be kidding to think that pointing out the incorrect use of two third grade words is Grammar Nazi behavior.

This blog reads like an elementary school paper.

If you don't want professionalism, read the Washington Times.

Posted by: Grammar Nazi | October 26, 2006 02:20 PM

I love the phrase, "Afficionados [sic] is snob language for jerk". That really cracked me up. These are just a selection of the comments I could have posted. The question is this: are we right to nit pick? After all it's only a blog post. I understand why people would get annoyed if I went through every dodgy MySpace profile or amateur blog with a fine-toothed GrammarComb™ (I want one of those please, Santa) but I don't think it's unreasonable for readers to expect good standards of grammar and punctuation from professional writers. Then again, maybe I'm just being a total aficionado.

Labels: apostrophe abuse, grammar, nazis, newspapers, their/there

Ever wondered what it would look like if you filled a blunderbuss with apostrophes and fired it at a web page?

Take a look at MarloDee Design's and wonder no more.

Related post : When tortoise owners go bad

Labels: apostrophe abuse, punctuation, The List

We've seen engraved apostrophe abuse before but this is something else.

A tip of my hat goes to Apostrophe Abuse for such a startling find.

I really like these more permanent errors. As funny as it is to see illiterate, amateur scrawling on cardboard, there's something unsettling about knowing prolonged effort and significant expense has been poured into an error-strewn monstrosity.

Take this example:

My glee was increased when I discovered that the film commemorated by this monument to stupidity courted controversy for its endorsement of white supremacy - in particular the KKK. A poorly educated racist: who'd have thought it?

Labels: apostrophe abuse

Today I found this horror on a drinks menu at a four-star hotel:

Labels: apostrophe abuse, hotels, menus, randomised caps

What is it about days of the week and months of the year that makes linguistic plebs think their plurals are possessive?

Labels: apostrophe abuse, signage