Could The Apostrophe Be Viewed As A Shibboleth Which Separates The Half Educated From...

[sandyRoe]

...their more fortunate brothers and sisters?
I confess, I've never quite got the hang of using them.

[mikey4444]

You should read "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss sandy. I did and its a lot more complicated than it looks !

[sandyRoe]

I'm not sure I'd want to be reading anything that saps my confidence even more.

[Canary42]

A most entertaining book IMO.

[mikey4444]

She is awfully clever, that Truss woman, and I did come away thinking I was more stupid that I thought I was !

But I don't see as many of those greengrocers apostrophes as I used to though, so maybe the message is getting across.

I saw a sign outside a Garage, about 20 years ago, in a service area off the A40 near Monmouth, which read ::

"All credit cards excepted"

When I gently, and thoughtfully asked why they didn't take credit cards, I was greeted with complete incomprehension by the somewhat dim woman behind the till. But I noticed the sign had been changed the following week.

[sandyRoe]

And there was a car park at the top of Castle St in Belfast had an inviting sign painted on the wall, Easy Excess.

[bhg481]

A clever one I saw many years ago when a shop was moving to new premises "This stationery store is moving"

[Cloverjo]

Not related to apostrophes, but I saw a sign in South Africa which read "All cars will be toad."

[LyndaB]

Our local farm used to have a sign that read 'Plea'se look after your children while'st in the shop'

[Baldric]

I'll have to look that one up, I'll get back to you!

[chrissa1]

It simply takes the place of a missing letter, or it denotes something that belongs to someone or something.

[boxtops]

IMO, it's become such a hotbed of controversy that many people don't use 'em at all these days. We were taught at school, it was dinned into us, when it's appropriate and proper to use one.

[Prudie]

I'm quite good at understanding apostrophes but I haven't the faintest what a Shibboleth is.

[mikey4444]

The difficulty with not using apostrophes is that sentences might not make any sense without them, as Truss says in her book very well. I am most certainly not a fan of dumbing down here.

[zebo]

A brand new Mercedes Sprint van carrying Dress'es is my favourite. I've never found apostrophes difficult, they're used in a contraction such as they're.
The harder use is for possession and I was taught,and have taught, to switch the words around, for The mans wife, say The wife o the man. The apostrophe goes after man, The man's wife.
The dogs legs would become either The legs of the dogs or The legs of the dog and again the apostrophe goes after either dogs or dog, whether it's singular or plural The dog's legs or The dogs' legs.
This probably sounds rubbish, it's hard to write down!
I also taught the swapping idea for me or I. John and I went to the pub or John and me went to the pub? Ignore John, would you say I went to the pub or Me went to the pub. It's John and I went to the pub.

[Prudie]

I'll repost something I put on one of JJ's threads recently as it's relevant here:

Today I visited my mum's grave. I sat on a bench in the sun to have a ciggy and noticed the most beautiful headstone in front of me . Polished black granite in the shape of a heart with red roses and green leaves beautifully entwined all down either side. The lettering was done in really shiny gold, it was breathtaking. At the bottom, in gold it said-
Love never die's
:-0

[mikey4444]

Betty always says, every Xmas Day afternoon, about three o'clock ::

"my husband and I" We would all die of shock if she said "My husband and me" although "Phil and I" might not be too bad I suppose.

[zebo]

I almost crashed driving to work one day many years ago when I heard Chris Woodhead, then in charge of Ofsted, talking on BBC4, he said something along the lines Dave and me were told......, this from the man in charge of standards!

[Buenchico]

My favourite sign was the label on a filing cabinet at the the school that I taught at. It read "P.E. Stationary". I assume that the drawer was full of information for couch potatoes ;-)