..to be disappointed that there's a grammatical error on the box of an M&S educational toy?

[earthpixie]

"Build the British Isles and all it's famous places"

sigh

I'm with you on this one Jamie I have heard it argued that the correct usage is CEO's and as a teacher I have seen SAT's written many times. My reasoning is that the acronym actually takes the place of a word, so you treat the acronym like a word. Therefore, it's CEOs and SATs.

Love this thread.

Our local shopping centre spends a fortune on its Christmas decorations. A few years ago they had giant banners all around the walkway and each one had a verse from 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' on it. I emailed them to tell them that 'on the forth day of Christmas' was incorrect and got a very dismissive email back.

They put those bloody banners up for the next two years.

acronyms - everything you wanted to know and more.

I wouldnt shop there anyway

www.inminds.com/boycott-marks-and-spencer.html

BTW I agree with you, Writer. Acronyms should be treated as words thus:
'I met the CEOs of some major companies.'
'I sat in our CEO's big chair.'

In some cases acronyms have become fully fledged words - laser, sonar - which makes it obvious.

Nome, the rusty cogs in my brain just got your joke!

M&S are crap.

Grimma - I cannot be arsed to read all that. I am very tiiiired

In the sprit of conciliation, I shall cede to Writer on the CEOs example

(is cede even a word?)

Earthpixie - I got an M&S puzzle for DD last year. It is an opposites puzzle and one the pictures is 'clean' and 'messy'. Except of course clean is not the opposite of messy. It always annoys me but I never got as far as contacting them

CEO isn't actually an acronym - it's an abbreviation as you say each letter individually when pronouncing. An acronym is a word formed by the individual letters of several words but pronounced as a single word (i.e. laser)

Have you read this blog?

www.unnecessaryquotes.com/ ?

Enjoyable in a cringeworthy way!!

My dear mother and I (or should that be 'and me?') went for lunch in a little bistro style cafe in Oxford at half term, which had witty sayings penned on the walls, complete with random apostrophes and some pretty awful spellings. Mum, being a recently retired teacher, did offer to correct them with the marker pen in her handbag... The cafe owner declined..!

I love that blog

It appears the unnecessary quotation mark is favoured by our "American Cousins", whereas here in "Blighty" we prefer the unnecessary apostrophe's

Cede is indeed a word Jamie. It means that you surrender to me

You're quite right about the acronym/abbreviation thing Mrsmackie

See, in the back of my old brain I knew that. My subconscious dragged it up.

Definition of ACRONYM
: a word (as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters

MrsMackie is right but the use of acronym has extended to abbreviations so we're all right .

Whew, otherwise my favourite, the TLA, would make no sense.

Ah so what you're saying Grimma is that instead of being wrong I actually knew quite an obscure fact about abbreviations/acronyms that is new and innovative?

And all is right with the world again.

Everyone is right. Let's all hold hands and sing

About three years ago I complained about a birthday cake from M&S that had an unnecessary apostrophe! I received gift vouchers too, so it's worth pointing out.

Yes, but I'm righter than everyone else.

(more right???)

Oooh I just remembered a great M+S one. I was looking at their cards and there was a beautiful new home one with all the letters individually stuck on. I did a double-take though when I saw that it read

'Happy New Homo'

That's GOT to be some bored student doing a summer job having a laugh, right?

No, its the 'coming out' card, surely. Very inclusive, M&S.

" last year the headline behind the BBc news reader said "Damming report""

and that's what we pay our licence fee for?

I do see the logic behind CD's, DVD's etc, but IMO it's wrong, and has led to many carrot's and onion's

It is wrong. But where do we stand on Dos and Don'ts? Or Do's and Don't's??? Looks weird either way, especially in capitals. Makes my head hurt, that one.