Comments on: Apostrophe Protection Society

By: Dr David G Woodward

Dr David G Woodward — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:05:06 +0000

Danielle should note that correct use of English is not confined to the apostrophe.

“Gotten” is an abberation of North American English and is not acceptable in English English.

By: Bob Beckley

Bob Beckley — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:11:05 +0000

I agree. If you want to hear my “Apostrophe Apostasy” song, click here: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=367678&songID=7301555

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:48:42 +0000

Thanks, Phil, for the lesson! I TRUST no one here would ever take a vain personal offense at getting corrected. We can all learn from it. Now I need to correct my last post! I should have written that I feel frustration OVER, not OF, the misuse of the apostrophe. I want to use English properly always, not most of the time. Yes, I am a bit neurotic!

By: Neil Cole

Neil Cole — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:35:30 +0000

I despaired when I saw a sign outside a pub advertising a football match between Leed’s United and Valencia.

However, the links to the Society don’t seem to work and my email to the organiser has bounced back – does anyone have up-to-date contact details for the society? Thanks in advance! Sorry, thank’s in advance…

By: Phil Hallman

Phil Hallman — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:50:05 +0000

Bella (in Comments) should note that her last sentence, to be grammatically correct, should read “My friends are used to my getting enraged about misplaced apostrophes these days, though” instead of what she’s put. In my revision of her sentence I am using ‘my’ as the possessive case (because it’s not her that her friends are used to but rather to her getting enraged …). I have substituted ‘about’ for ‘at’ for accuracy reasons and have included a comma before ‘though’ to signify that this word is an interjection. Otherwise, nice one, Bella!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:11:29 +0000

This cartoon and comments from other aware folks help ease my chronic frustration of the misuse of the apostrophe. I really started to notice the employment of the superfluous apostrophe over a decade ago on Ma ‘n’ Pa store signs, etc., but now it makes it to print on backs of DVDs, in newspapers and magazines, on mass-produced signs, and more! Arrgghhh! It drives me crazy. I am also annoyed at the misuse and neglect of the hyphen! For example, it should be seen in “cold-brewed” … right? I am far from perfect, and would like to truly know all the rules, but glaring errors, like the ones shared in the comments above, are mighty irritating. Thanks for sharing, fellow English-lovers! Oh, and please correct me if I am wrong on any of these accounts! A friend bought me a greeting card showing two women talking on the front. One says to the other, “So, where’s your birthday party at?” The other replies, “Don’t use a preposition at the end of a sentence.” The first one then responds, “Where’s your birthday party at, bitch?”

By: Bella

Bella — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:06:08 +0000

Ah, I never grow tired of this comic. I was out with a friend one day last week and a cafe had a sign that said “The kitchen close’s at 2PM”. I can’t believe that people still make mistakes like that. My friends are used to me getting enraged at misplaced apostrophes these days though

By: Katherine

Katherine — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:28:43 +0000

I was helping with a booth at a Fall Festival last night and couldn’t help but notice that one of the signs directing people to other booths had an apostrophe in ‘booths.’ I ended up putting a white label over the apostrophe…

By: danielle

danielle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:44:37 +0000

The apostrophe crisis has gotten so bad that I even catch myself putting them in wrong places. The good news, though, is that I manage to correct them before I go too far…

By: Teresa

Teresa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:03:49 +0000

Cool! Thanks for the link. I’ll point those who make the its/it’s mistake towards it! That one just about drives me round the bend and is so easy to avoid if given even a moment’s thought.