To expect a cafe to be able to spell cafe au lait?

[Orangeanddemons]

On a picture on wall in said cafe. Spelt caff iau latt. Seriously.

What is wrong with these people?

Yes Peppi, I hear you, but, if you have the knowledge to open and run a shop, it is just lazy, not ignorant or stupid, but lazy, to not check the spelling of the items you are trying to sell. Be it coffee, tea or soft furnishings.

If I were to go to Saudi Arabia to open a Tea room, and I in fact managed to do this, it would also be quite amazing if I managed to spell tea incorrectly in the local tongue, bearing in mind I had relocated, settled in foreign lands, and manage to run a business there. How on earth could I overlook the spelling of Tea?

I once saw a van bearing a nicely-painted sign on its side, showing the company details and their area of business: Punchers and Repairs.

It definitely wasn't joke.

It's not correct to insert a comma between 'Loose cattle' and 'Drive carefully' because two sentences cannot be split by a comma without any conjoining words.

But if it is two sentences then surely a . is appropriate. The comma may be wrong, but something is required!

Sorry - just wanted to say that I am sat at my desk giggling my head off by myself, and I am only half way through. I will finish reading and then try and remember a couple from my favorite Korean restaurant. They keep us very amused!

Yes Saggy, a full stop would be fine and one or two other punctuation marks could go there too, but I always like to look up colons haha before pronouncing which it should be, i.e. semi colon or colon. I know a dash wouldn't be right there.

Ah yes a semicolon. So either Loose cattle. Drive carefully. Or Loose cattle; drive carefully.

Good spelling and grammar are important. English is a complicated enough language without it being rendered incomprehensible/ridiculous due to poor spelling and lack of punctuation. That's the whole point of spelling and grammar: to ensure the sense of what is written or printed can be properly understood.

Wasting cash on a sign or printed document containing spelling mistakes or typos just shows poor attention to detail and is embarrassing.

I'd rather have a hug than a shag.

I'd rather have a hug then a shag.

These things REALLY matter.

Long live the ;

And the subjunctive mood for that matter...

My favourite was the dog walking service which had it's motto painted on the van..

"Well be their for you're pets when your not able to be"

err ITS hoist with own petard

Fanjo, Oxford can join you with her "me and DH stayed at a place"

"DH and I stayed at a place"

pedant pants fitting much too well today

at least i noticed I suppose

The best one I have seen was a van in Norway with the caption:

"Våpen og Ammunisjons forretning" (Weapens and ammunition shop"

"Weapens and Breastfeeding"

The van door opened sideways, and hid half of the sentence so it said

• not Ammunisjons forretning but amm ing thus hiding unisjons forretn

sort of

In the town where I grew up, at one point there were two hair salons called "Deja Vous." I can accept not using the correct diacritical marks for "deja" (in fact, I don't know how to do them on MN), but "vous" is just nonsense.

that might have been a pun, as in, it's so you dahling?

Lol at BF weaponry

Spelling is my barometer of basic professionalism.

beastofburden, I was writing colloquially

Sorry to clusterpost, but a friend texted me just a few moments ago saying, "A new beauty salon has opened down the road called Le Belle. AIBU to boycott it for using the wrong gender pronoun?".

I have directed her to this thread

My friend's tattoo parlour has grocer's apostrophes across the window- Portrait's, Cover- up's etc. I have pointed out that it does not inspire much confidence in his spelling ability as a tattooist but he has yet to change it!
There was a shop in the next town over with a lovely elegantly hand-lettered sign
Brenda's Book's
WHY if you are a signwriter WHY do you not know about apostrophes?

Oxford, I think a boycott is in order. Unless you wish to conduct a Nancy Drew-style investigation along the lines of 'Gosh, the name of your new salon is so intriguingly ironic - how did you come up with the idea? Transexuals need places where they know they will be welcome. It is all-embracing but subtle genius'.
Oh, and if you do, please let us know the outcome.

As a teenager I used to carry a marker pen to correct graffiti.