to quietly correct this?

[forgotmypassagain]

I want to preface this with saying at this juncture I have not uttered a word.

Through my DDs I am friendly with one of the school mums (sit with her at parties, message about the kids, take them to soft play together).
She’s recently set up a business…let’s call it The Happy Faces but on all her promotional things she’s put an apostrophe in faces so the the business is called “The Happy Face’s”…

I suppose I’m asking if anyone would point this out to her? The type of business it is lends itself to correct grammar, punctuation and spelling. Mine is by no means perfect btw and I’m asking more from the point of view that she is absolutely lovely and i would like to see her succeed and wouldn’t want people to be put off the business by incorrect punctuation in the business name.

I wouldn't give anyone my business if they were too lazy to check that their advertising was grammatically correct.

"The type of business it is lends itself to correct grammar, punctuation and spelling*

Yet her own spelling and grammar is awful?!
She's not going to get much business, is she if she's making all them mistakes.
Gone way past making an error with the name, sounds beyond help.

@FalderalderaldoSittingintheWater
You can see a reply to this on my post at 11:54.

I know someone with a misspelled tattoo. I have kept schtum about that one. However, in this case, I would have to say something.

@WhodoVoodoo Oh no. 🫣

Life is too short.
Tell her.

If her grammar is generally poor she will not be mortified.

Some people find it hard even with grammar check.

Not a satisfactory explanation. If you cannot be totally honest with your friends, why be friends with them?

I R.E.M. being taught that at school

Op - shit sandwich. Or printers error

Has to be

If she is a good friend you need to tell her

Am I the only one who’d keep their mouth shut? People shoot the messenger.

You MUST tell her.

Nor me. It shows IMO either plain sloppiness, or at least a lack of attention to detail.

Please tell me it's not a literacy tutoring business

Recently I was proof reading and editing my nephew's thesis. OMG. He got a great result from it, but I can tell you that I spent half my life correcting grammar and spelling.

I obviously didn't verbally point it out, but using Google shared docs, he saw all the changes!

I wonder if it's because people don't read as much now as we did when at school/college as a lot of their studies and work seems to be sourced online these days. I'm definitely getting old and cranky!

And I'm sure I make some grammatical and spelling errors myself.

Surely she has a design and /or print company? Let them point it out for her

I’m also put off businesses with spelling/grammar/apostrophe errors in their marketing. I know that these skills are much harder for some people than others, and perhaps if your trade is something manual, you probably don’t need to be great at SPAG. However, I’m sure that almost everyone knows someone they can ask- a family member or friend- to check for errors.

Edited twice for typos 😂 (Haven’t got my glasses on).

Can anyone explain what the thinking is that makes people add superfluous apostrophes sometimes but not others?

I think it's because most people are aware that apostrophes are a thing, and probably remember being taught about possessives and contractions when they were about 8. But they have forgotten the detail of what they were taught, and only remember that apostrophes are usually found in words ending in S. So you get apple's, orange's and that sort of thing. My favourite example was uni advertising a "foreign student's social evening". Not much of a social if the foreign student was there all on their own.

I would naturally have written “Laura and Jane’s card shop” without being able to explain why. Thank you for the explanation!

forget the grammar... what a bloomin boring name!!

Preferably not a Nazi of any type @ByFlakyHazelTiger. Just someone who is good at spelling and grammar.

I saw a high end six figured salary job in Dubai advertised with an error like this yesterday - something like, “our clients headquarter’s are based in…” 🤦🏻‍♀️

It just signals a lack of professionalism. I would definitely tell her, and I don’t see any need to sugar coat it too much either. A good standard of written english is a pretty basic requirement in business - you’ll be doing her a huge favour.

As it’s someone you like and you are saying it from a place of kindness, I think you should point it out.
I think it’s only as awkward as you make it.

I would just say something like ‘Hey, just wanted to let you know I noticed a little typo on your promo bits and bobs.
I know how precious some people can be about spelling and grammar, so thought I’d mentioned it.
The designs looks great. So excited for you!’

Do please tell her, it's important that she presents herself to the public correctly. Some people would be instantly turned off by that. Make a joke about greengrocers :-).

I have corrected spelling, punctuation and grammar in school newsletters with a red pen more than once. So far I've resisted sending the corrections back in with my children. Recently they misspelt my son's surname on his graduation certificate. 😬