16/08/2013

International Apostrophe Day

Today is International Apostrophe Day, and I just couldn't end the day without giving homage to one of my favourite punctuation marks. I highly doubt there are any events held in its honour - all I've seen are articles on how to use apostrophes correctly, and disturbing photos of them being misused.

Sad apostrophe
Barely a day goes by without me recoiling in horror at a misused or absent apostrophe, and I think it's fair to say that the economic decline can be partly attributed to this frequent misuse. That might be an exaggeration, but I haven't bought anything from Waterstone's since they turned into Waterstones.

Here's a more succinctly put quote from a book excerpt:

Apostrophes are the difference between a supermarket that knows its shit and one that knows it's shit; between feeling you're nuts and feeling your nuts; between "Hell mend them" (an old-fashioned curse) and "He'll mend them" (a bloke's coming round to fix your tiles).

The misuse of the apostrophe, along with the misuse of the word 'literally', the increase of text speak and all other trends that are ruining the English language are often attributed to just 'how language evolves and times change'.

But our language is not evolving so much as devolving. So let's start with the humble apostrophe, because once we've got that right, the rest will fall into place. So, here is my plea: Use it, don't confuse it, and report abuse of it. 

6 comments:

  1. You're funny, I like you. I you really want to get depressed, google "definition of literally" and look at the second meaning. Pretty sure it's a sign of the apocalypse.

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    1. Haha thank you! Ugh, I just googled it. What a great start to the week!!

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  2. I literally cannot stand the way people misuse the word literally. Literally.

    Also, apostrophe misuse just kills me. My favorite is injecting them into words that don't even have them. Like when I see someone type the word "wan't"

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    1. Haha "eye's" is quite a common one too! Apostrophe misuse literally kills me, too!

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  3. I can't believe I missed Apostrophe Day! But this is a reminder for me to hunt down and label my calendars for the other punctuation days. And I agree, it's aggravating when people can't get their punctuations right. Literally. :)

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    1. Haha,same here - I hope there are other punctuation days. It'd help to know in advance so I can plan a party! Thanks for your comment! x

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