After reading an ad in today's newspaper I cannot hold my thoughts back. It read: "Huge Memorial Day blowout-- discount tree's..." Seriously? In your large newspaper ad? "Tree's"??!!! Now I'm not an English teacher or a grammar expert, but the misuse of the apostrophe in this way absolutely drives me crazy! Below are 2 rules explaining when it is okay to use an apostrophe:
| Rule 1. | Use the apostrophe with contractions. The apostrophe is always placed at the spot where the letter(s) has been removed. | |
| Examples: | don't, isn't | |
| You're right. | ||
| She's a great teacher. | ||
| Rule 2. | Use the apostrophe to show possession. Place the apostrophe before the s to show singular possession. | |
| Examples: | one boy's hat | |
| one woman's hat | ||
| one actress's hat | ||
| one child's hat | ||
| Ms. Chang's house | ||
P.S. Stupid blogger format cut off the end of the rules, but you still get the picture.
6 comments:
I am glad someone else sees those mistakes and gets bugged. I try to teach my students those rules. There is a blog dedicated to the misuse of quotation marks, one picture was from a restaurant that said," today's special, onion "soup" ummm... So is not really soup after all? If you are going to be in business you should probably get your grammar right, or hire someone to spell check!
This drives me crazy too! :)
you mean not in Moncur's Making Tracks? Unless it means Moncur IS making tracks...then it would follow rule #1...
I've been biting my tongue about this for a really long time too. I hate it so much.
The problem with this and other really common mistakes (your/you're or their/there) is that you see them so much that they start to look correct. I've actually made these mistakes once or twice lately and I blame this phenomenon.
I helped out with a summer school program one year and a TEACHER wrote on the board and misused the word their!! I couldn't believe that!! When I called him on it he didn't even know what I was talking about!! SERIOUSLY! Who do we have teaching our children. :)
Care, you are awesome, but now I'm totally terrified of using an apostrophe! :)
Post a Comment