To tell teacher friend about grammar error?

[ImaSababa]

A friend of mine is a primary school teacher, and is making and selling cushions on Facebook. Lovely. The problem is, they're riddled with mistakes, such as "Christmas at the Johnson's" when surely is should be "Johnsons'".

Should I tell her?

I think you should ask your friend about it. She could give you (and other PP's a lesson!)

Christ this thread is depressing. The second part of your parenthesis is in completely the wrong place. (And you don't need an apostrophe after "PP".)

@SummerHouse

Oh who cares. No one agrees. I just find ways not to use apostrophe's.

Is this a "joke"?

Yes. You should tell her. I wouldn't say this if she had a different job, but it's potentially a real problem for lots of children if their teacher hasn't mastered the punctuation of possessive 's'.

@Crunchymum

' is only relevant if the name ends in an S

So if the surname is Johnson then Johnson's is correct. If the the surname is Johnsons then it should be Johnsons'

No. Because although their surname is Johnson there will be multiple JohnsonS in the household.

@kursaalflyer

And incase anyone wonders about the correct use of the Penis family apostrophe

Christmas at the Penises'
Christmas with the Penises
Christmas at Mr Penis's

In case. In case. In case.

Two words!

[quote LaceyBetty]@DadDadDad
Definitely helpful to say it out loud. Like Jesus, for example, should probably always be Jesus's rather than Jesus'. [/quote]
No, this is a specific exception, as in "In Jesus' name."

but I cringed incase she got some awkward feedback from parents!

In case.

Jesus.

So.....what's the verdict, OP? Are you going to tell her?

I most definitely wouldn't buy a personalised cushion with incorrect apostrophes, unless it was dirt cheap from a seaside 'walkaround store' (as with the 'I love chip's' seagull above) and I wanted to laugh at its tacky tawdriness.

I don't think a lot of people realise just how much it jars to some of us when bad grammar or spelling is employed - we aren't just being pedants trying to prove a petty point. To me, it would be just like for a die-hard football fan ordering a replica shirt bearing their favourite player's surname and then it arriving with the wrong number on it for that player's position. Try telling them "Well, there is a player with that name in the team and they have somebody who plays as number 4, so why would you even care?"

@ShipOfTheseus yes, it was an autocorrect which I corrected in my subsequent post.

You don't need to tell her. You can ask her if it's correct. That allows her to question it and correct it herself.

@Arthersleep

You don't need to tell her. You can ask her if it's correct. That allows her to question it and correct it herself.

Although if this thread is anything to go by, who knows what conclusion she'll reach once she's questioned it....!

No joke @unacorda that apostrophe owns that full stop outright.

You are right, but tread carefully😬.

No one in their right mind buys or does not buy cushions based on grammar.

You might not care, but I would struggle with the sense of ‘wrongness’ every time I saw said cushion.

The OP is correct but it’s hilarious how many people are vehemently insisting she’s not and citing their own invented rules as proof.

No one in their right mind buys or does not buy cushions based on grammar.

Say your surname was Thomson and you ended up with a cushion saying "Christmas at the Thompsons'" - would that not bother you? An errant apostrophe would bother me to the same extent.

Kursaalflyer We take photo’s of bad spellings etc if we can’t buy it. My favourite was an ice box with ‘cock cooler’ written on the side from a vendor selling drinks

It would seem that other companies think your friend is correct too

It's actually a grammatical error, not a grammar error. Just in case she corrects you!

The girl's ball is a ball belonging to 1 girl, but the girls' ball is a ball belonging to 2 or more girls.

And the girl's balls is a pair of balls belonging to one 'girl'.

A cock cooler! Ha ha.

A pub near where i grew up advertised peasant soup in between christmas and new year. My dad never found anything so funny. We all had to have peasant soup and he took a picture of the chalk board menu.

Lol! Took me a while but just worked out cock cooler!🤣🤣

@ImaSababa does she use IOS / iPhone?

I only ask because the autocorrect adds apostrophes all the time and will autocorrect Johnsons’ - I’ve just tried it and had to manually correct it twice!

OP is correct. Her friend is wrong.
But it's a grammar rule lots of people get wrong, even when challenged (as seen on this thread) so she'll probably still get plenty of custom.

My cousin is a teacher and she still made a similar mistake in her wedding invitations (cringe). They gave the wedding venue as "St Gile's Church". It looked so wrong to me but I bet a lot of people didn't notice.

The "Christmas at the Hartley's" adverts added by a PP keep appearing on my Facebook too. Many people have commented pointing out that the apostrophe is in the wrong place and the company has made a huffy response each time saying "our customers can have whatever wording they choose". Well, yes, but it's odd that they have chosen to keep incorrect versions as their main advert!

I am finding "The Penis Family" very amusing though.

As for whether to tell her, possibly not. It probably won't go down well. I once drew attention to my daughter's head teacher because her newsletter was going out every week littered with spelling and grammar errors. I had assumed it was typed up by the school secretary whose first language wasn't English. Unfortunately it turned out it was head teacher's own "work". She now absolutely hates me. I wish I'd never said anything. I still think it looks crap though

It would seem that other companies think your friend is correct too

Hey, don't criticise cottage industries set up by fellow MNers (presumably some of those who responded early on in this thread)