For those who still don't know that plurals in English are generally not spelled with an apostrophe

[DFW]

[IMG][/IMG]

[LAGC]

1. Well, there's certainly no shortage of Grammar Nazis here on DU...

I kind of like people pointing out my spelling and grammar errors, though.

Help's (sp) me improve...

[DFW]

4. LOL!

Actually, it's mostly on Republican sites where I see that. Most Democrats know how to read and write English.

If you want a real laugh, go to the Washington Post site and read the comments (in the comments section below articles and editorials) by the paid professional hate posters from the right (they're not difficult to spot). Most of them never met an apostrophe they didn't like.

[kentauros]

26. "Most Democrats know how to read and write English."

However, as I've discovered in recent weeks at DU, some of our members are so very anal about this subject. They have stated (rather emphatically, I might add) that if a person can't spell or use anally-proper grammar, then they will be considered less educated / less intelligent / less than said anal-grammar-master, and unworthy of further discussion between them.

N'ow tha'ts jus't sad'

[DFW]

31. To typo is human, as they say......... n/t

[kentauros]

33. And the air is humid.

[RebelOne]

14. I am a grammar Nazi, but I try to restrain myself. I am a former copy editor.

But those apostrophes in plural nouns drive me crazy.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. And then there's Spelling:

The difference between "I will not support Romney" and "I will now support Romney"

[Bucky]

22. That's a typo, not a spelling error

Not that I'm trying to be a category nazi...
http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Grammar+Nazi.+OC+And+Four+More+Words_91faa4_3690058.jpg

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Sure it's a typo

But if it's not corrected, then it becomes in essence a spelling error if the intent of the writer is misrepresented by the word as it is written.

[Deep13]

3. Its pretty easy to remember.

I still object to the term "grammar Nazi." The Nazis murdered 20 million people. Those who point out grammatical errors are merely annoying. I propose using the term "grammar pedants" from now on.

[bigwillq]

9. I don't like Grammar Nazi

although I do like Soup Nazi.

What is the deal with that?

[MiddleFingerMom]

12. NO GRAMMAR FOR YOU!!!!!

[Bucky]

23. Nah. "Pedants" sounds like...

you're comparing them to Jerry Sandusky.

(And yes, I do know what "pedents" really means, so don't be a definition nazi )

[kentauros]

27. How about "Grammar Despot" instead?

Same number of syllables, and more people know what a despot is than a pedant

[beac]

41. So "Grammar Martinet" probably also too obscure...

mar·ti·net noun \ˌmär-tə-ˈnet\
Definition of MARTINET
1: a strict disciplinarian
2: a person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods

[nolabear]

45. I prefer "Grammarnatrix". Mama spank.

[hay rick]

47. Time to whip DU posters into shape.

Dressing for the occasion would be a bonus.

[kentauros]

48. Now where did I put my sleeveless turtleneck and powerdome?

Ah, here they are!

[retread]

5. All those M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s in the English department haven't been minding their p's and q's.

Though most of them got all A's in English.

[dimbear]

16. When I say it's the exception that proves the rule, I use 'prove' in its old meaning of test.

It goes way back.

Now I need to wash the dishes and then do the irony.

[LeftinOH]

6. "Parking for Customer's Only". This sign was placed on an outside wall

of a store where I worked back in the 1980s. I promptly went out there and painted over the apostrophe. The business is gone now, but the sign is still there and the words have faded almost completely, but that little blotch of white paint is still doing its job.

[Jim Lane]

8. Here's a practical recommendation for you.

Buy a copy of the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss. At least in the edition I have, it includes a punctuation repair kit. There are several sheets with gum-backed punctuation marks of varying sizes that you can peel out of the kit and stick onto signs where they're needed. (Perhaps your local theater is showing the film Two Weeks Notice and you want to add the missing apostrophe.) For cases like the one you describe, the kit includes other stickers reading "The Panda Says No!" that can be used to cover improper apostrophes and the like.

Her iconic panda is the one that walks into a bar, gobbles down some pretzels, fires a gun twice into the air, and turns around to go out. The startled bartender asks, "Wait, what was that all about?" The panda replies that, according to the encyclopedia, a panda eats shoots and leaves.

[RebelOne]

15. I own it and everyone who posts here should also read it. n/t

[kentauros]

28. Every one?

Or every only? I can't say I'm a customer, yet I would like to park my only here.

[pipi_k]

7. My favorites are

the quotation marks...

"cook" books for sale

"chicken" breasts: $ 1.49/lb

rest rooms for "customers" only

[DFW]

10. Though not an apostrophe mistake, this one drives me nuts

.....mainly because I LOVE Mark Knopfler's music, and when I hear this otherwise great song with one of the stupidest grammatical mistakes you can make, and TWICE in the same verse, I feel like shouting back at the CD to tell him to rewrite his text.

From his song "Darling Pretty" from the album "Golden Heart:"

There will come a day, darling pretty
There will come a day when hearts can fly
Love will find a way, my darling pretty
Find a heaven for you and I
Love will find a way, my darling pretty
Find a heaven for you and I

I don't care HOW well it rhymes, I age a month every time I hear him sing "for you and I."

[MiddleFingerMom]

13. Yeah, but "Find a heaven for you and my" is just INVITING a dangerous final line.

.
.
.
At least it would if they were MY lyrics.
.
.
.

.
.
.

[DFW]

17. Now if he had sung THAT......

I'd say, "BRING IT ON!"

[pipi_k]

35. Speaking of which...

Listening to a 60s station the other day, and what comes on but "The Girl From Ipanema"

Kicky tune and lyrics until...

"But each day when she walks to the sea,
She looks straight ahead, not at he..."

Like your example, I don't care how well it rhymes. It makes me cringe.

And why wasn't it written, "She looks straight ahead, not at ME" ?

oh well

[DFW]

40. I always say, leave songs in Portuguese alone.........

Não?

[geardaddy]

24. Then you'l love the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

[pipi_k]

36. hahahaha!!!

Love it! Thanks!

I may have to contribute a few of my own that I find around town.

[treestar]

42. LOL

Looks like some people think quotes function as italics.

[Wait Wut]

11. There is a town that I pass through...

...when I go to California called "Hope, AZ". They had this old sign welcoming you to Hope. On the other side it said, "Your now beyond Hope."

They replaced the sign a couple of years ago. It still says, "Your now beyond Hope", but now the sign is even more prominent.

The husband and I will be about a mile or so from the sign when the husband just starts giggling. He knows I'm going to go off on a friggin' rant. I tried taking a picture of it once, because my sister didn't believe me. Next time, I guess I'll have to actually get out of the car.

[retread]

20. Queen of Hearts: Now, where do you come from? Alice: Well, I'm trying to find my way home...

Queen of Hearts: Your way? All ways here are my ways!

[Iggo]

38. Get out of the car and pose with the sign.

That sign's just askin' for it.

[lunatica]

18. Well I like to think I'm one of those you can say, "You know your shit."

The other one would make me pissy.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. Historians know yore shit. nt.

[DFW]

21. And a bumper sticker is born! n/t

[Tuesday Afternoon]

34. !

[ThoughtCriminal]

29. Bob T. A. F. explains

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

37. thanks for this!

It's on my FB page already!

[southerncrone]

30. There, their, they're.....

itll bee all right.

[UrbScotty]

32. Plural's are fun!

[NV Whino]

39. I hate Kindle

I can't edit the mistakes.

I've sent back many a library book having edited mistakes and bad grammar. I've also read a few where someone got there before I did. Makes me smile when I see an edited book.

[ChazInAz]

43. My last boss hated me.

I have been a high school English teacher, I am an actor....English is one of my tools.
My boss, the last one before I retired, was incapable of using proper grammar or correct spelling. Quite often, he'd ask me the proper spelling of some words whilst toiling over a memo. Being a helpful guy, I'd tell him. That was alright by me...glad to be a resource in the interest of better communications. Apparently some higher-up pointed out to him that it was inappropriate. So the requests stopped, and his memos became virtually unintelligible. Still being a helpful guy, I started correcting his spelling and grammar in red pencil, grading them and sending them back. The memos stopped appearing after a while. I don't know why.
Shortly thereafter, he hired a secretary.
I was just doing my part to create jobs.
Now I'm retired, but I still know my shit!

[ashling]

44. Knowing your shit is not the question - Communicating your shit is

Last edited Sun Jun 24, 2012, 07:53 PM - Edit history (1)

" Grammar, perfectly understood, enables us not only to express our meaning fully and clearly, but so to express it as to enable us to defy the ingenuity of man to give to our words any other meaning than that which we ourselves intend them to express."

 

  ~ William Cobbett

I use this quote in my government class. Effective communication is a component of critical thinking.

I have had kids in college who's grammar was so bad as to make their writing incomprehensible. I required one student to visit the campus writing center before I would grade any more of her work.

[ashling]

46. I am not a grammar cop

but I play one on DU