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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

What error bugs you most?

For me, a misplaced apostrophe makes my face red. I go ballistic when I see sock's for sale or "visitor's hours," as if there will be only one visitor.
Apostrophes are little things but they do make a difference. We mustn’t be so careless; we must make an effort. Apostrophes should be our friends and we should take care of them. We don’t want to leave them hanging where they don’t belong or leave them out when we should include them.

3 comments:

Zachariah Parry said...

Apostrophe misuses are definitely near the top of my list. For me, however, using "that" when it should be "who" takes the cake.

The Sentence Sleuth said...

Thanks, Zachariah. That's a good point. You usually use "who" after people and "that" after things. So saying, "The person that" wouldn't be as good as saying "The person who." Likewise, I recommend, for example, "The company that" instead of "The company who."

VictoriaMia said...

I think you'd like this:
http://apostropheatrophy.com/

In the design world, apostrophes are the canary in the coalmine. "Straight" apostrophes don't mean the same thing.