Wednesday, 15 October 2008
‘ParenT's’
We've hit the mother lode! Inappropriate capitalisation, misplaced apostrophes (of course) and quotation marks used for emphasis.
Note how increasingly wayward the single quotation marks get; by the end of the notice they're almost like brackets.
Labels: apostrophe abuse, quotation marks, randomised caps, signage, signs
posted by Gez at 4:43 pm
15 Comments
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Fast food with pizzazz
A brief glance at the other side of this sign delivered some more top-notch spelling.
posted by Paddy at 4:11 pm
1 Comments
Monday, 11 August 2008
Organic food in a hurry
This mistake is worryingly common and makes me chuckle every time I see it.
This is also one of those errors that I have to verbally correct when I hear spoken. I can often be seen in the queue at Starbucks obnoxiously hissing at some poor soul, "Esssssssspresso!".
I can't help it; it's a compulsion.
Labels: foreign language spelling errors, photos, signage, spelling
posted by Gez at 6:24 pm
3 Comments
Saturday, 28 June 2008
A Hole New World
Sometimes spelling errors can initiate fairly sinister thoughts. I don't think I want to know who the 'Hole Family' are, but clearly they'd enjoy themselves at Cha Cha's.
Thanks to Noah Tarnow, who saw this on the Coney Island boardwalk.
Labels: signage, spelling errors
posted by Tom at 11:28 pm
6 Comments
Friday, 20 June 2008
See what you say: premisis
It always amusis me when someone abusis spelling in such an obvious way, and yet the error still makes it onto public signs before anyone noticis. Needless to say, drinks were spilled here.
Labels: lack of attention to detail, signage, spelling errors
posted by Paddy at 12:58 pm
3 Comments
Monday, 16 June 2008
Electronic'S - R - US
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
posted by Gez at 9:58 pm
7 Comments
Grammar Abuse in Signage: Part 18
I was out for a quiet coffee with my wife over the weekend and, as I headed to the counter to pay for our drinks, I was met with this egregious pair of notices.
Once again, for the pathologically illiterate, pluralisation does not require an apostrophe.
As you cast your eye casually northwards, you notice that they are no longer accepting £50 notes, for which they 'appologies' for any 'inconveinience' caused. You have no idea what kind of so-called 'inconveinience', nay grief, you have caused.
Labels: signage, spelling errors
posted by Paul at 10:52 am
8 Comments
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Grammar Abuse in Signage: Part 17
A couple of lovely signage atrocities to brighten up your Sunday drudge.
I'm a huge fan of this mess – sent to us by Martin Greenberger of Westchester, California. Aside from the moronic spelling, I really like the ignorant (but wonderfully earnest) attempts at Emphasis.
This, sent in by Simon Pittock, is a splendid example of what can happen when inbred fayre-goers get access to the magic of Microsoft Publisher. Typographically, it's a real stinker. The spacing, size and placement of the characters seems to have been deliberately randomised; it's as if the designer, in a fit of politically-inspired pique, has decided to reject uniformity and smash the system. Excellent.
Labels: signage, spelling errors
posted by Tom at 12:15 pm
3 Comments
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Pheonix Way
That would be 'Phoenix' then.
This road can be found in Portishead, Bristol.
View Larger Map
Labels: portishead, signage, spelling
posted by Gez at 6:22 pm
5 Comments
Friday, 4 January 2008
Gobbledygook
If only I'd seen this in time to include it in the Xmas special.
Where shocked.
Labels: signage, spelling, wrong word
posted by Gez at 1:54 pm
3 Comments
Thursday, 3 January 2008
More or less?
Martin has been in touch by email to submit this wonderful example of a shop getting it completely wrong.
Martin writes,
Even a major national chain can get it wrong, the attached is in the window of the local W. H. Smith store.My maths isn't great but I know that buying something at more than half price isn't necessarily a good deal.
Labels: marketing copy, signage, wrong word
posted by Gez at 7:32 pm
2 Comments
Sunday, 30 December 2007
New's Agent
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.I think this is made worse by the fact the "agent of the new" has neglected to use apostrophes to acknowledge the missing letters either side of the 'n'.
Also, what the hell does "sweet and things" mean?
Labels: apostrophe abuse, signage
posted by Gez at 1:36 pm
5 Comments
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Grammar Abuse in Signage – Xmas Special
In a way, we should thank the Romans for our annual excuse to eat and drink too much. If they hadn't got uppity with a certain beardy upstart and seen fit to nail him to a cross we would have never had cause to celebrate his birth.
Still, I'll never forgive them for crucifying Santa.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, dear readers, for the support since GrammarBlog launched only 8 months ago. We're planning a few changes in the near future, all for your benefit, and I hope you will continue to enjoy reading the blog as much as we enjoy writing it. A special thank you goes out to all those who have contributed and commented, please continue to do so.
Before I have to get back to drunkenly rowing with relatives and falling asleep in front of Indiana Jones I have just enough time to present to you the entries for our Grammar Abuse in Signage Xmas special. (I really regret using 'Xmas'. I was kind of joking when I did so but every time I write it, a part of my soul dies – which is less than ideal.)
So without further ado, here they are – starting with the winning entry.
The fabulously monikered Garrett Coakley sent this in and writes, "This is the pub across the road from my flat on the London Road in Oxford. Depressingly this is the same sign from last year and they still haven't noticed. The place is a bit of a hole anyway, you can guarantee there will be a fight outside every Friday and Saturday evening."
Garrett receives 100 shiny Xmas GrammarBlog points for his submission. They're in the post.
Here are the best of the rest:
This was submitted by Julie but spotted by her son, aged eight. Julie did not say whether or not the boy had his photo "took" with Santa.
Sent in by Daniel. Quotation marks for emphasis should get you added to the naughty list. I also like the way the alphabet theme is abandoned at XYZ.
Alden spotted this at his local grocery store.
Oops, lookes like the marketing department at Home Depot was in a bit of a hurry to get this marketing email out.
From Francis.
From Martin in Glasgow.
The Smiths' what?
Merry Christmas, everyone.
posted by Gez at 10:10 am
4 Comments
Friday, 21 December 2007
I woder how things like this are allowed to happen
If it was my job to slot letters on to marquee signs like this one I’d collect all the letters I need before ascending the ladder, and then check I’d used them all before storing the ladder away. Whatever happened to that ‘N’? Perhaps the member of staff pocketed it and sold it as a 'Z' to a rival cinema, pulling the wool over everybody's eyes in the process.
It makes the absence of the apostrophe seem almost trivial.
Labels: apostrophe abuse, cinema, signage, spelling, Xmas
posted by Paddy at 4:24 pm
4 Comments
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Grammar Abuse in signage: part 15
You've probably seen this as everyone in the world reads The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. If you don't, you should. 
I love to hate everything about this sign: the terrible typefaces; the indented first line; the incorrect tense; the misspelt three letter word; the weird hanging quotation mark; and finally the ambiguity. Am I to built my onw taco, or my onw taco bar?
It's up there with the worst sign ever.
Labels: menus, quote me happy, signage, spelling, Typography, wrong word
posted by Gez at 11:28 pm
5 Comments
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Grammar Abuse in Signage, part 14
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
posted by Tom at 1:56 pm
0 Comments
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Grammar Abuse in Signage - Parts 12 and 13
If you shop at Tesco you earn Clubcard vouchers. Vouchers equate to prizes in Tescoland. Yes they do.
You can exchange your vouchers for Hilton vouchers, to a princely ratio of 1:4 (£50 of Tesco vouchers becoming £200 of Hilton vouchers). The genius of my wife led her to suggest a break in Edinburgh at the Caledonian Hilton hotel; a 5-star hotel, no less. Good work.
Imagine, if you will, discovering that the 5-star rating doesn't cover basic language skills:
Two notices; multiple errors: inexcusable.
Labels: photos, randomised caps, signage, tesco
posted by Paul at 12:56 pm
3 Comments
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Grammar Abuse in Signage - Part 11
This was taken by me while on holiday in Cornwall. The standard of spelling, punctuation and grammar I saw on the signs down there was atrocious.
Much to my girlfriend's chagrin I spent a lot of time outside hotels, restaurants and gift shops shamelessly snapping away. I should start a specialist travel company. GrammarTours Ltd. – for the irrepressible pedant.
Obviously the final line, "ALL ROOM'S FULLY EQUIPT" is the highlight but the use of the lowercase f is a cause of puzzlement to me. It reminds me of lowercase l—but with f.
Labels: apostrophe abuse, punctuation, randomised caps, signage, spelling
posted by Gez at 12:46 am
2 Comments
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
For God's sake, wash it!
Dirty Dicks in this photo; a glazed ass in the last Who says GrammarBlog is puerile?
If you feel your manhood is sufficiently grubby and you would like to visit this not so exclusive members club, here is a map to its location.
View Larger Map
Labels: apostrophe abuse, photos, signage
posted by Gez at 7:29 pm
2 Comments
Grammar abuse in signage - part 10
I'm not sure what's more entertaining: the apostrophe abuse or the crop of the photo.
Labels: apostrophe abuse, signage, white van man
posted by Tom at 12:11 am
4 Comments
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