Signs to Grind One's Teeth On

[kevin_standlee]

There is a florist in Fernley by which I walk each day. They've put up a sign for graduation season. It drives me a little crazy.



Now I hate the "grocer's 's'" and do not understand why so many people seem to think that any word with an s on the end of must actually end in "'s," but in this case it's even worse. Why do it to some words but not others?

These signs make me wonder what the people making them were thinking. But I also know that trying to correct them is pointless. They would look at you with an utter lack of comprehension, not understanding a word you were saying.

Comments

[clothsprogs]

I'm the same when people write "their" or "there" when they mean "they're" , and "your" when they mean "you're"

You're right of course, trying to correct them would come up against the blank wall of their incomprehension

Teddy
(Duplicating my reply here because I'd forgotten I was reading in LJ when I posted it)

[garyomaha]

Yes. Me, too.

Just yesterday, I saw an ad for special pizza pricing on Wednesdays. It used the spelling "Wedgie Wednesday's" multiple times in the ad, but did not use the "'s" in any other plural in the ad.

Even Kuma Bear uses "fishes" and not "fish's" for plurals. (Actually, I guess Kuma uses "fishes" for singulars, too.)

[kevin_standlee]

Lisa and I assume that Ursine doesn't have a singular/plural distinction, so we get mostly plurals in Bear-speak.

[lindadee]

It also bugs me when people misuse you and I -- as in he gave it to you and I. Argh!

[kevin_standlee]

Agreed. The way to check is so simple, as you know: take the other party out of the object phrase and see if sounds right: "He gave it to I" is obviously wrong, so "you and I" is also wrong. I learned that in elementary school; why is it so difficult for people?

Not that I'm perfect. I do sometimes mix forms of its/it's, even though the check is similarly simple (spell out "it is" to find out if it's (ahem) correct). I think that one gets me because I end up wanting to use the 's as a possessive, and possessive "its" breaks the normal rule on possessives.