to be horrified by dreadful use of the apostrophe in signage. DH says nobody else notices.

[EccentricaGallumbits]

A high street shop.

On the big front sign thingy over the window.

Sweet Melody's

That was the shop's name.

Am I wrong and unreasonable to find this a shocker?

Maybe Melody is the shop keeper's name?

as in Sweet Melody's shop?

Or just wrong? DH says it's only people like me that would notice.

I know what you mean about kind of liking it, TiggyR. It gives me a horrified thrill whenever I see Kimmy,s.

The letter are 2ft high! The comma is several inches in length...

And once again...

I secretly quite admire the flippant 'don't care' attitude to it. I'm too anal and insecure to allow myself to get anything so publicly wrong...it takes me a week to write a letter because I have to check and re-check it for flawless grammar and punctuation, nicely flowing content, correct paragraphing, not over-long sentences, blah.. yet if ever I dare point out incorrect signage etc. to other more laid back mortals they look at me with pity, as if I need a therapist.

this thread has made me laugh as the dh and I frequently talk about this! He has his own sign manufacturing firm and the amount of times has has been instructed to make signs that he knows are grammatically incorrect. He just gets sent the plans and specifications and has to get on with it. Usually the person in charge of the decision are so far up the line you rarely get to talk to them. Smaller firms are easier as you can say to them but there seems to be a trend to be incorrect on purpose to be different and stand out!?!?!

TiggyR, as for the pointing out of signage, don't worry shopping trips with dh are a joy. He points out bad lighting, poor workmanship, bad joins on signs...if this is a ploy for me to leave him at home on shopping trips, he has succeeded! what a sign-geek!!!

oooooh rats!!! Just re-read my post and it is littered with mistakes!!!

YANBU, drives me mad.

YANBU! That and poor spelling ...

I love this thread, you're all making me laugh.

Lands' End always makes my twitch when I see it. However I am not sure whether that is just the apostrophe madness or the unspeakably ugly clothes.

What the hell is all this substitution of commas for apostrophes? It's madness.

And apostrophes in names. For the love of God why?. Such as Princess Tia'ami (Jordan - you are responsible for a lot of the wrongs in the world).

Re: Princess Tia'ami - That's what I mean by the loose, pick'n'mix devil-may-care attitude to grammar and punctuation by the great unwashed, especially those with pretensions. She used her mum's name (Amy) and Pete's mum's name (not Tia, but something similar,) and thought: "Fuck it. Hyphenating is for wimps. Conformity is for sheep. I'm going to join them together with an apostrophe. It says so much about me - individual, classy, daring, self-absorbed, semi-literate.....

I'm in favour of a MN Apostrophe Police where you get an ID card, special MN Tippex & markers

STOP! Apostrophe Police! Step away from the punctuation and nobody will get hurt!

YANBU. I notice. I ranted all the way through dinner at a restaurant because the staff were wearing t-shirts proclaiming various things about their 'fajita's'. Surely someone noticed before they were printed up?

YANBU

Pubs are great for apostrophe mis-use - I especially love Sandwich's and Chip's at our local.

I also saw a sign on a shop yesterday saying cafe' - not only had the signwriter not been bothered how to work out how to do an é, but just stuck the apostrophe on the end for good measure! Gnnnnnnnnnnnnn makes my eyes bleed.

The worst thing is that schools/councils are going down the route of saying that as it is so confusing that apostrophes ought to be phased out. I don't understand - it all seems so simple once you've got the few rules clear in your mind!

Ha. YANBU

In Mothercare I saw a t-shirt/babygro for sale which had printed on it something along the lines of

"Daddy say's I am lovely"

I want to know how that got through on to the shop floor? I mean, from the person who designed it to the people who put it out for sale on the shelf, surely someone noticed the glaring stupidity mistake?

Failing a marker pen, a stack of these could come in handy.

fine snark

Oh, thank you everyone for making me laugh! Have just come home fed up after sitting in the rain waiting for sports day to start, only to be told after an hour that it was cancelled - all the kids were taken back soaking wet into school for the rest of the day and all the parents went home drenched.
P.S. I too find missing or extra apostrophes really annoying.

Or should that be "apostrophe's"?!

TiggyR you are really making me laugh on this thread - are you a namechanger or new (many apologies if you have been TiggyR on this site since time immemorial).

Apparently Tia'ami is made up uf Tia (after Pete's mum who is called Thea dontcha know) and Amy after the mother of the scrubber. Who knows the significance of the apostrophe.

Thank link above showing random inverted commas - halfway down the link there is a screamer - a sign on a wall saying

Do Not "shake babies"

Rofl

YANBU! I notice and it drives me bonkers!!

GOML (love the name BTW, you're not my neighbour are you?)

I am not a name changer but I am a new(ish) semi-lurker. Try not to get sucked in too much as I am inclined to do bugger all for days on end otherwise.

I noticed the same thing in Wells-Next-The-Sea! Going again on Thursday for icecream's and parasol's.

YANBU - drives me crazy too!

whilst on a bus I saw a warehouse with one of those long banners tied across the top saying "we sell buglar alarms"

was giggling all the way after that, I think I got some funny looks

a bit more is the note we had home from SCHOOL saying "X class will be swimming on Tuesday's and Friday's" !!!

Kas26 I think your husband needs to take direct action and print them grammatically regardless of idiot customers.

They seem to do the opposite here in Ireland and just ignore the need for an apostrophe altogether. which I find annoying, but DP says I'm the only one.

you are not being unreasonable... at least according to me ... but then I look at teletext and secretly snigger at headlines which because of poor punctuation mean something completely different than what's intended..

YANBU-but then I can't send a text or email unless the spelling and punctuation are correct. . Comes from being educated in the 60's/70's when these things really mattered.