Continuing in my campaign for better apostrophe use comes this news story about a man in England who has taken the unusual path of adding apostrophes to signs.
The most significant problems with apostrophe use involve the overuse – but this guy wants to ensure they don’t die out altogether…
“The 62-year-old’s defence of the apostrophe comes after Birmingham council announced it would scrap the punctuation from council signs for the sake of ‘simplicity’.”
Mr Gatward, who served for four years in the Gordon Highlanders in the 1960s, is not just a campaigner for the apostrophe.He will not join the ‘five items or less’ queue at the supermarket, in protest that the sign should read ‘five items or fewer’.
He also gets annoyed when people-neglect the ‘Royal’ in ‘Royal Tunbridge Wells’, and was vexed when he saw a major chain store advertising sales with signs saying ‘until stocks last’ rather than ‘while stocks last’.
‘I fought for the preservation of our heritage and our language but some people seem happy to let that go. I’m not,’ he said.
Read more here…
Sadly, Brisbane’s council has the opposite problem and probably should be following the flow chart. Its error is set in stone.
Here’s a photo dad snapped on his iPhone of a new footbridge.
It’s in the sentence:
“Although many changes have occurred along the river, it’s spiritual significace endures.”
Comments
Mr Gatward is awesome.
As for the bridge in Brissy, as you said on Facebook they can at least put some putty in it and paint over the mistake. I hope they do…
I'm wondering if your multiple use of "it's" while referring to the error in your father's photo is deliberate irony or just plain unlucky?
Nathan's use of "it's" is correct. Not ironic nor unlucky.
I had actually used an incorrect it's. I wasn't sure if anyone would dare offer a correction…