Friday, September 27, 2013

Friday FAIL

Some of my favourite grammatical FAILs involve the misuse of the apostrophe. No, not the one by Healey Willan. I mean the little comma that hangs in the air and causes so much confusion.


Keep on adding them whenever a word ends in S -  that seems to be the rule for most shopkeepers. The more the merrier, right?





Add an extra R to be on the safe side. Bravo!





Why not skip that pesky apostrophe altogether?





You can spot the incorrect use of the apostrophe right away at the bottom of the note, but read the whole thing carefully and see how many other errors you can detect. Keep in mind that this was written by the educators of your children.





Go back to school, iPhone.





Curse you, AutoCorrect!

From Hermione's Heart
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14 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 27, 2013 at 6:07 AM

    Good post Hermione. It's scary when our children's teachers can't write a proper paragraph, and our kids are suppose to learn how?
    archedone

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 27, 2013 at 6:19 AM

    Hmm, that must be my problem. I was taught by a teacher who didn't understand how to properly write! Lol
    Kim

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our Bottoms BurnSeptember 27, 2013 at 6:25 AM

    You and Erica just can not get off this. Some of us still like playground more then English. Thankfully, Bacall did pay attention in English class, so she can proof my writing while I play.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 27, 2013 at 6:55 AM

    Thank you Hermione.

    Hug,
    joey

    ReplyDelete
  5. ashebridgeSeptember 27, 2013 at 7:52 AM

    Ugh that drives me crazy! I just had to stop reading a book, yes a published book that I paid for because of the apostrophe situation, amongst other blatant grammatical errors that made it difficult to figure out what she was talking about!

    I see a lot of signs like that here, plus quotation marks get added to their unnecessary apostrophes. So they'd write --

    "Pump's" are not taking "Debit" cards...

    ReplyDelete
  6. HermioneSeptember 27, 2013 at 8:04 AM

    Archedone - You really have to wonder about the education system.

    R&K - So was I. My elementary teachers had no idea how to pronounce many words - drove me crazy!

    Bogey - No, we can't and we WON'T get off this, because we are hard-wired editors as well as spankos. We can't help it; it's just who we are.

    Joey - My pleasure.

    Chick - All that excessive punctuation drives me up the wall too. Authors who want to be taken seriously need to hire editors.

    Hugs,
    Hermione

    ReplyDelete
  7. elle :)September 27, 2013 at 8:30 AM

    I just cringe at all of these!!!! Aggghhhhh!!!!
    ::backs away from post screaming:::

    Lol :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aimless RamblingSeptember 27, 2013 at 10:53 AM

    Yes - I see it more and more. Yuk

    ReplyDelete
  9. ronnieSeptember 27, 2013 at 11:27 AM

    Hermione,

    I have to agree with SG - seem to see it more and more.

    Love,
    Ronnie
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. EricaSeptember 27, 2013 at 2:08 PM

    ARRRRGGGH! I mentioned the apostrophe thing in my latest blog. When did people start using apostrophes to indicate plurals?? I don't remember seeing this when I was young. Stupid stupid stupid.

    Yes, we can't get off it. Because some of us bemoan the dumbing down of society, including those who are supposedly our teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. HermioneSeptember 27, 2013 at 2:54 PM

    Elle - You and me both :(

    Sunny - It's getting steadily worse.

    Ronnie - It's everywhere you look.

    Erica - Imagine making it a statement on a tshirt. You'd think the designers would check first. But then, they probably don't have English dictionaries handy.

    Hugs,
    Hermione

    ReplyDelete
  12. KenzieSeptember 27, 2013 at 3:41 PM

    oh my goodness, woww lol. Thanks for sharing..

    ReplyDelete
  13. Minielle LabraunSeptember 28, 2013 at 12:34 AM

    The teacher should have had someone proof his or her directions. YIKES!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dave WolfeSeptember 28, 2013 at 3:08 AM

    :-D Those made my eyes hurt, especially that first Gas Notice. Or maybe that's, "Gas, Note Us."

    I suppose you've seen Dave Barry's "Mr. Language Person" articles on correct punctuation and so forth?

    Thanks, Hermione!

    ReplyDelete

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