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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Would everybody, including Jeff, please stop putting apostrophes where they don't belong (eg NDAs, 1970s, bananas, etc). Making a world plural NEVER involves an apostrophe, which is used to denote possession. (as in "an NDA's wording; the wording belongs to the NDA). Please and thank you. So. Acronyms, year groupings, nouns ... simply add the 's' (except for nouns that have alternate spellings for plural forms as in 'families').

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Curtis's avatar

One of my favorite grammatical peave's. 😁

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R1ghtTh1nk's avatar

"peeves" (I see what you did there!)

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

You're trolling, right? It's "peeves", darling! 😉

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Bryn Cannon's avatar

One more to add to the list:

“Led”, not “lead” when used as a past tense of “lead”. 🙄

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mary's avatar

Nothing can be worse than mixing up “went” and “gone”. And inserting “of” in a sentence as in “I wish I had of called you first.”

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Curtis's avatar

The apostrophe was a troll, but the misspelling was unintentional. 😁

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Fred's avatar

😂😆

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Barnjai's avatar

Curtis, hahaha!

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NAB's avatar

All true, but I also know autocorrect loves to commit this grammatical error.

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Lori P. Clark's avatar

I call it spell wrecker.

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St. Alia the Knife's avatar

😂🤣 Good one!! I am going to have to remember that one!

Mrs. "the Knife"

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Better than p*cker

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

I think autocorrect should be thrown into the dustbin!

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Jay Horton's avatar

A friend of mine says it's from Satan.........

Could be something to that.

Later Jay

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TB's avatar

I much prefer the "underline it in red but don't automatically change it" version that I get on desktop.

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Perfect.

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MaryAnn's avatar

You can disable it. But then you are on your own. 😉

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

I find it more a nuisance than a help!

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Bryn Cannon's avatar

Every time I type “were” (including just now!) autocorrect tries to change it to “we’re”. Same with days of the week. So annoying!

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NAB's avatar

Or, on my phone, when I type "Well," it will automatically correct to "we'll." And I always say, out loud (as if it can hear me), "No. I mean to use 'well.'"

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Paige Green's avatar

I have the opposite problem. I want “we’re” and get “were!”

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

How about THAR when you try to type "that".

That's my biggest peeve....just sounds so stupid!

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St. Alia the Knife's avatar

Back in my admin days, I could always tell (and still can!) whether someone wrote a memo/letter/email and just sent/posted it, used SpellCheck, or actually proofread their work!

Mrs. "the Knife"

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RunningLogic's avatar

That always annoys me too! I gloss over Jeff’s typos because I know he has a limited time to write and proofread but see these kinds of errors all over the place and it drives me nuts 😩 (and not nut’s 😆)

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Jeff is not the only intelligent professional doing this... it has become almost standard use these days, the aggravation of which I share with you!

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Paige Green's avatar

I’ve found one cannot determine intelligence by spelling/grammatical errors.

I certainly hope Einstein got his theory correct and didn’t have an error 😂

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St. Alia the Knife's avatar

Ditto and amen!

Mrs. "the Knife"

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Guy White's avatar

Somebody call Mr. Language Person!

(Anyone else remember those hilarious Dave Barry columns?)

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

No but it sounds right up my alley; I'll look that up!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Please be kind when reminding...I might be a project for you...:)

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Paige Green's avatar

They used to run his column in our local paper back in the day. Lots of LOLOL!!!

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R1ghtTh1nk's avatar

Thank you SO much! I'd love to add a couple of suggestions re commas ....

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

How about PARAGRAPHS!

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

I remember those! Here's one substacker who uses them, and very well: https://open.substack.com/pub/jupplandia/p/the-self-love-in-group-hate?r=q4die&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Also James Delingpole. Love his writing.

Jeff isn't writing essays, though so he's cleared of blame here.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

I have a hard time reading a post without paragraphs.

Sometimes I skip it out of principle.

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Go for it!

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Based Florida Man's avatar

Thank's for the reminder!

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Janet's avatar

Thanks. I needed that. 😀. I hate finding those apostrophes on my tiny device anyway.

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Fred's avatar

Didn’t know there was a fist bump. Thanks!

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Fred's avatar

Although, since it became a thing to avoid shaking hands - ack, germs! - I may not find it too useful.

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Rosalind McGill's avatar

The autocorrect does it for me & I forgot to proofread

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Yeah, proofreading's a must (apostrophe here because it's a contraction of "proofreading is"... same as "it's). The crazy thing about "it's" is that when that little word is meant as possessive, we drop the comma. English is complicated!

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The Great Resist's avatar

Seeing “it’s” and “its” used incorrectly is one of my top language pet peeves. Another is seeing “lead” (rhymes with fed) used as the past tense of the verb “lead” (rhymes with feed), instead of the correct “led”. Feed/fed, bleed/bled, lead/led. But then there’s read/read (not red). Ah, English!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

So "it is" should be "it's"?

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Yes. Where as "its fur" has no apostrophe, even though the fur belongs to "it" so it normally should.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Thank you!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

What's the other exceptions?

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Well, "yours" and "ours" come to mind. Theirs, too. No apostrophes.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Yeah I remember those.

But no apostrophes with pronouns?

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Sure: he's (he is) she's (she is)

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St. Alia the Knife's avatar

THANK YOU!! This punctuation error makes my eyes hurt! Unfortunately, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors leap off the page, almost like grains of sand irritating my eyes and brain.

On the flip side, if someone who does well at math looked over my math scribblings (plural, just add the "s"), I am sure they (the scribblings) would burn out his/her retinas. 😂🤣

Mrs. "the Knife"

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Arithmetic is about the extent of my math skills, decades after having had to do algebra and worse!

But you're right about how writing errors "leap off the page"! I do make these sorts of comments/corrections from time to time, and always get a few deriding me for being so picky or what have you. I just shrug, because they don't have a clue. Actually, it's as if a musician just randomly dropped the rules of musical notation yet still expected others to accurately reproduce the sound he had intended.

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JW's avatar

Someone has had too many coffee's today...or not enough.

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

You don't think punctuation matters, eh? COFFEES NOT COFFEE'S

I've had just the right amount of coffee as usual, thanks.

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Peace's avatar

I do know that commas matter - "Let's eat, grandma!" vs. Let's eat grandma!" And commas can get expensive! https://proofed.com/writing-tips/5-expensive-comma-typos-history/

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Great example... like the book "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"!

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Austin's avatar

Let's all replace our 4.5 readers with 1.0 readers.

And, yes, the apostrophe belongs. ROFL

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Rose Bolin's avatar

You replied to my comment but I don’t see even on apostrophe in my comment???

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Joanie Higgs's avatar

What comment, Rose? I don't see it or a reply from me. My original comment was a stand alone to everyone at large.

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May 3, 2024
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Joanie Higgs's avatar

Thanks for the chuckle, Dave! I love the image of that "heap of apostrophes".

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