Grammar Police v Wedding Party *MNHQ tweaked title at OP's request*

[WillLiveLifeAgain]

I'm usually OK with grammar but this one has me scratching my head. Probably lack of sleep (not over this).

Went to a wedding at the weekend. They had one of those neon signs with their surname but added an apostrophe. So it said

The Smith's (name changed)

Shouldn't it have said The Smiths? There were four of them including children. Not one belonging to something/someone.

I'm very happy to be proved wrong. I'm not a grammar nazi but would hope something like that would have been right?

I know this is AIBU so disclaimer obviously what matters is the happy marriage of two loving people not an apostrophe.

That is disgusting

No apologies are ever needed for trying to understand something. Does this example make sense?

John and Mary Atkins (no plural, no apostrophe) have 4 children. The Atkins (collective Atkins, no apostrophe) family went to the park to meet some friends. While they were there, the Atkins's (belonging to the family, apostrophe s) dog played with the Smith's (belonging to the Smith family, apostrophe s) dog. The Smiths bought everyone ice cream (plural, no apostrophe).

Used to be a shop near me called Daves Pet's.

I kid you not.

I loathe it because being particular about correct grammar really, really isn't on a par with fascist ideology, white supremacism and genocide.

Signs are irritating but at least they could be changed.
I went to a colleague's funeral and while waiting outside I looked at a gravestone which said "We wish you could of lived longer"
I've never forgotten it!

You're right..thats what I get for reading and cooking at the same time!

😮

Saw a t-shirt in a well known department store a few years ago with the slogan "Don't fancy your's much".

Totally unreasonable for typing/using nazi though

I don’t really know why, but the one in “GP’s” annoys me more than all the others. It’s almost ubiquitous these days, but it’s still bloody wrong.

I don't particularly like it, but I can tolerate GP's much more than potato's.

The Smiths' dog, surely?

The good old greengrocer's apostrophe.

Also reminds me of the story about the old Yorkshireman who lost his wife, and asked the stonemason to carve on her headstone "God she was thine"

Imagine his horror to find that instead they'd put "God she was thin"
... but never mind; on explaining they'd missed the "e" has was assured it would be changed

And so it was; next time he visited, he read "E god she was thin"

They teach a lot more grammar in primary schools now than they have done for years!

🙄😂😬🫣

But they're a professional sign engraver. They're not a professional proofreader. But they need one!

Its use here is coming from the verb police, not the noun.

Correct. Also should be the Atkinses' dog i.e. the dog belonging to all the Atkins family.

Like lots of things, it is taught, but unless the recipient is willing to learn it's flogging a dead horse especially when the parent complains that her precious is made ill when expected to exert themselves, we got a lot of that nonsense in the Maths Department too!

The Atkins' dog.

When our daughter was baptised we received a lovely, clearly expensive, card from a distant relative, Congratulations on you're daughters Christening. It surprised me because the sender was a very well educated woman, my OH said she'd probably asked her husband to buy it and not looked too carefully at it.