Apostrophes? ~ 5 Minute Grammar Lesson
on Sep 08, 2012, Updated Jul 20, 2020
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It’s time for our weekly 5-minute grammar lesson. The other day I was in Walmart and saw a sign. It almost made me puke… After I recovered, though, I whipped out my phone and took a picture. I love my iPhone!!
So, the question is, when should you use an apostrophe to make a word plural?! And the answer…
NEVER EVER EVER!!!
Instead, please use the standard English practice of placing an -S at the end of a word. Or an -ES. Or an -IES. Whatever – just don’t use apostrophes. Apostrophes are reserved for contractions and possession. Never, ever, ever use an apostrophe to make a word plural.
So, what should that sign at Walmart really have said?
We are currently out of bananas. We apologize for the inconvenience {and for being so stupid as to not know how to spell inconvenience, too}.
And that’s your 5 Minute Grammar Lesson. Any questions?
Got a picture for a 5 Minute Grammar Lesson? Please email it to me: [email protected]
Oh, this made me smile. I’m not the only one!!!! So many little grammar mistakes that just drive me batty!
Drives me batty, too. But, I guess it gives me something to dwell on … hehe. Gotta love it!
Hahahahahahaha! Maybe they thought capitalizing every single word would make the sign look so official, that nobody would notice the other errors. But hey, without bananas in your cart, maybe you could head to one of their express lanes for people with “20 items or LESS.” Gotta love The Mart!
So funny. I didn’t even notice the misspelling right off the bat. Or the crazy capital letters. Maybe they know about my blog and wanted to make my title easier… 😉
That’s the kind of sign that makes me ask (sometimes out loud), “Out of the banana’s WHAT?”
But they never tell me.
Hehe!! I wanted to beat my head on the ground…instead, I remembered these weekly posts and thought THANK YOU for making me giggle. 😉
This is a peeve for shure, but also using an apostrophe to pluralize surnames.
Bob and Mary Smith = The Smiths, not the Smith’s
Bob and Mary’s dog = The Smiths’ dog, not the Smith’s dog
And if their surname ends in “s” and/or is possessive, you might as well just give up on most people getting it correct.
It’s also a pet peeve when people, like me, write shure instead of sure! LOL!
Fur shure… Hehe. I got a good laugh! 😉
OMG!!!! Please don’t tell me that a high school graduate made that sign!!!! 🙂 Sadly to say – the picture made me laugh but your response made me laugh harder! You should email the picture to the store manager with a subject of “what’s wrong with this picture?”.