You can't have too many apostrophe's


Can we talk about this? Is it possible? Or by bringing it up, will I be relegated to that category of individual so many love to hate, the dreadful "grammar n?zi"?

Does it drive anyone else nuts that it seems that more and more adults in this country could evidently not pass a 5th grade English exam?

And is the increasing proliferation of "grocers apostrophes" THE single most annoying element of the above?!
paulfolbrecht
I didn't bother to read the full OP or thread before I posted...are you asking about the possibility of owning too many copies of Frank Zappa's recording entitled, "Apostrophe"?

;-)
I'm liking all these responses!

And, YES, I did ironically make a grammatical error in my post - oh, the tastiness of the irony! It should indeed have been "grocers' apostrophes".

(Seriously, thanks for pointing that out.)
Didn't common-use cause the Queen's English to devolve into American English? And what is the correct usage of an apostrophe? I once was a stickler for correct grammar and found over the years that it was irrelevant even in arena's where one might not expect. English is such an imprecise language that the mere fact we can conceive ideas and generally communicate them is remarkable in itself. The fact is that common usage prevails, eventually. I am aware of the numerous errors in my response but as noted by others "So What??"
No, it's not irrelevant. There are just a couple gray areas but plenty where the rules are completely clear - such as with plurals. Writing "arena's" when you mean "arenas" makes your writing quite awkward to read for somebody who understands the rules of grammar.

Mr. Tennis, whether or not grammatical rules exist is not a matter of opinion. Whether or not they are important is, but even you must have your limits? (Not that there's anything 'wrong' with your grammar, other than the lack of any capitals, which I personally don't find distracting.)
I grew up reading the Chronicle out of San Francisco which was notorious for bad spelling and grammar, the result of which is, whatever is trying to be said gets through and the manner in which it is said is either overlooked or ignored. Apostrophes' as well.