for crimes against the apostrophe, i hereby nominate... AUSSIE SHAMPOO

[Tutter]

and i quote...

"The indigenous Australian's use to grind wild peach kernels up to use..."

two howlers in one sentence

aren't they owned by procter and gamble? surely they have hoards of marketeers paid to spot these things...?

Is 'indigneous Australian' pc-speak for Aborigine? .

oooh I must go and have a look at my conditioner.

Did you get much sleep last night, Tuts?

the guilty product is colour mate shampoo

last night Not Awful, lapin. which is an improvement

have also put him down awake for his naps today [brave]

he went down easily tonight (touch wood) but he had been awake since 2:30 (asleep 5 mins ago)

Message withdrawn

lol at hoards

wanker due to pedantry cod, or cos you're sulking with me?

Message withdrawn

you think that's bad, we found an apostrophe error on Marks and Spencer's toiletries!!!!!something about mangoe's I think. DD2 pointed it out v loudly while we were in queue...'this is not just conditioner....this ungrammatical conditioner...'not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed!

LOL Madlentileater!

I don't mean to depress anyone, but I actually had someone try tell me that the apostrophe s plural ("mangoe's") was correct. This person was a raving idiot, of course, but she seemed frighteningly normal before she opened her mouth.

the chinese take away near our house has in BIG letters in the window:
"Made fresh before your very eye's"

aarggh!!

When I got my first pub and had to have a sign made up, it came like this:

SQUONK: Licensed to sell beer's wine's and spirits...

I rang and told them it was wrong. They argued with me. I explained WHY it is wrong, and they were insistent that it was correct. I asked them why no apostrophe in spirits and they said that it was because it would mean that the spirits were all doubles (or some such tosh) I said I wanted a new sign without apostrophes doing immediately for no extra charge.

Eventually they gave in but said that nobody else had complained and if I wanted a sign that was incorrect, it was my problem.

Grinding my teeth over that, Mightysquonk.

I have the opposite problem as well!

Trying to explain the indicative or descriptive as opposed to possessive:

Trustees training courses. The training courses aren't owned by the trustees, they're owned by a professional organiser and the trustees are the audience. My clients keep putting in an apostrophe after trustees and I keep taking it out. We're now going to say: Trustee training courses.

SO,

is it Men's finals (at Wimbledon)?

or Mens finals.

I must know.

Dunno! I've seen both versions. By the logic of my earlier post I suppose I'd have to say Mens finals as the players don't actually own the tournament, but... [helpless shrug], but...

But surely there's no such word as "mens", because "men" is already the plural.

(Queries starting sentence with "But")

I always thought my grammar skills were rather marvellous. Until I came over here.

(Would still genuinely like to know the Wimbledon verdict).

So you'd have to have a men final and a women final... It doesn't really work, does it?

Trying to think of some other indicative/descriptives I've come across recently in work which don't require apostrophes and look just fine (so far as I'm concerned):

pensions trustees--'cause the pensions don't own the trustees.
pensions consultants--ditto.
trustees training courses--ditto

I think the problem is that the plural of man is irregular (HAR why does that not surprise me!)[terminal full stop]

Someone will know. They'll come along and explain.