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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Pedants' safe-house

423 replies

oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 07:39

In view of the strong feeling expressed towards inveterate error-spotters (aka passive-aggressive bullies/pedants/twats etc) what about a thread for all the spelling errors/grammatical mistakes seen stricly outside MN in RL?
Like journalist Keith Waterhouse who was president of the AAA - campaigned throughout his career for the Abolition of the Abhorrent Apostrophe.
Spotted by self recently:

Ladie's hairdressers (in town)
Childrens' Society (on BBC)
10 items or less (everywhere)

OP posts:
BelleDameSansMerci · 09/06/2010 07:44

Can't we have one for the errors spotted on here

Original poster
oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 08:10

Have to be a nuclear bunker rather than a safe-house I fear, Belle. But stir away!

OP posts:
SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 08:14

not bothered about errors on here, unless it's by someone picking someone else up on spelling/grammar. I make loads myself, in fact i resigned from pedants' corner shortly after having dd after an embarrassing its/it's incident.
however, rl ones wind me up, especially ones where there should have been more thought, shop signs etc.

There's a car place near me I noticed the other day, Stanley Car's. And my very high up boss at work who signs off emails with the single word thankyou.

Original poster
oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 08:22

Where is pedants' corner?
In my local paper recently:

...John Smith...takes over the reigns...

OP posts:
pjmama · 09/06/2010 08:27

Could someone explain its and it's to me? I wear my pedants badge with pride, but this is one that ALWAYS embarrassingly confounds me!!

We had a local pub that spent loads promoting their new wild west theme. They had the phrase "Triger Happy" emblazoned everywhere. You'd have thought somebody would have pointed out to them at some point whilst having all this new signage painted that they'd spelt trigger wrong. They closed down shortly after...

BecauseImWorthIt · 09/06/2010 08:31

Brief rule of thumb: if there's an apostrophe, it's there to indicate that there is a letter missing - hence

"there's" = there is
"it's" = it is

Its, without, is the equivalent of his/hers, e.g. "a leopard can never change its spots". Try substituting "its" for "his/hers" - "a leopard can never change his spots". Then you can check if it's the right/wrong its/it's!

If you'd (you'd = you had) written "it's", then that sentence would read "a leopard can never change it is spots."

I'm sure there's (there is!) more, but hope this helps!!!

pjmama · 09/06/2010 08:36

Cheers!

TrillianAstra · 09/06/2010 08:39

Waitrose say 10 items or fewer!

Original poster
oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 08:40

That's because Waitrose is for clever people.

OP posts:
SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 08:42

it's can also be "it has" as well

SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 08:43

Don't asda say "about 10 items"?

Original poster
oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 08:44

Is that because Asda customers can't count?

OP posts:
SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 08:48

oh 60% of us can, the other 50% stuggle somewhat

BecauseImWorthIt · 09/06/2010 08:50

SPB - yep. But same rule - apostrophe indicates something has been missed out.

SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 08:54

oh yes, sorry, wasn't arguing with that. Just thought it was worth mentioning it's not always it is.

edam · 09/06/2010 08:58

@ SBH's 60/50

All this bollocks sports people and reality TV wannabes spout about 'I'm giving it 110%' really gets on my wick. THINK about what you are saying, people!

SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 09:01

especially the fact that when you get them together they all try to outdo each other X factor: "100% yes" "110% yes" "one million % yes, you're through"

Original poster
oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 09:05

It seems there is an un-mined topic here. If we include the numerically-challenged as well this post could run 4 ever.

OP posts:
JeezyPeeps · 09/06/2010 09:42

Apostrophes also indicate ownership.

Children's toys (toys belonging to children)
Mary's car (car belonging to Mary)
Leopard and it's spots (spots belonging to the leopard)

So the sentence "a leopard can never change it's spots" would be correct.

xstitch · 09/06/2010 09:54

Every time I read my local paper I want to make corrections in red ink.

My dd's puzzle book contained the sentence "They are sat on a blue picnic blanket". This is my pet hate.

Original poster
oldbutgold · 09/06/2010 09:55

Apostrophes can indicate ownership, but not in the case of 'its'.

'A leopard can never change its spots' is correct.

It's means - it is, it has.

OP posts:
noyoucant · 09/06/2010 09:59

JeezyPeeps I don't think that's right. Surely it's still "a leopard can never change its spots". When indicating possession it is always "its" without the apostrophe.

echt · 09/06/2010 10:05

OK, here goes, and it's a massive one here on MN.

PILs instead of PsIL; after all, they're parents-in-law, not parent-in-laws.

Noyoucant is right about the apostrophe, and jeezypeeps is mistaken.

However, back in Jane Austen's day, yours WAS written with an apostrophe (your's) to show possession, so at least they were consistent then.

SPBHatesFootball · 09/06/2010 10:05

Jeezypeeps
its is the possesive

edam · 09/06/2010 10:07

Jeezy, you've just demonstrated neatly the danger of posting on pedant threads - that you'll make a mistake yourself.

xstich, problems with local paper are probably because the owners have sacked all the subs. There's no quality control any more - the guardians of spelling, grammar and usage have been thrown out! (I'm just waiting for the first paper to be sued because there are no subs checking copy...)