Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Drunken Grocer's Apostrophe

A fine example of the Grocers apostrophe, but this time for drinkers. (For the non-Australians, a 'pot' is a beer glass measure. The full range of Australian beer drink measure glasses is remarkably confusing, as seen here.)

Under 'Misuse' the Wiki page on the apostrophe has the following:
A 2004 report by OCR, a British examination board, stated that "the inaccurate use of the apostrophe is so widespread as to be almost universal". A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly.

Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less grammatically able assuming it to be correct and adopting the habit themselves.
Certainly it's like shooting fis'h in a barrel to find thes'e nowaday's.

More details here.

James

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