The Ultimate Misplaced Apostrophe?
Introduction
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Image: © David Dixon Taken: 5 Apr 2012
The humble apostrophe is useful to denote the omission of letters eg they're (they are) or possession eg John's book (John, his book or the book belonging to John). Unfortunately, many find it confusing and put in apostrophes where they are not needed, often when pluralising words ending in vowels (banana's apple's etc). The term "grocer's apostrophes" (or should it be grocers' apostrophes?) for superfluous apostrophes came into use during the mid twentieth century when such use was common in the handwritten signs made by greengrocers although the practice is not confined to grocers; until recently, it was common to see signs for CD's in music shops. I'm not sure if the sign above, which was on the walkway on the upper tier of Image], could be classed as a grocer's apostrophe. It is certainly unclear what the signwriter meant. There is nothing missing between the F and the E, and it's not pluralising nor is it showing possession. Perhaps it's an acute accent which has slipped backwards from the É of CAFÉ?
Image Location
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