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
Glory, I know you're not quite serious, but you're missing the point. You pointed out typos, not grammatical errors, and in any case I want to know about mine (if I intentionally make any) so's I wont do allot anymore!
Paul posted, "This might be my last post in the thread. Now you guy can burn me in effigy; have a blast! :)" Apparently: he can't help himself(five posts post-posting that post), like so many others in these forums. Paul- You said, "Writing "arena's" when you mean "arenas" makes your writing quite awkward to read for somebody who understands the rules of grammar." I understand the rules of grammar fairly well, and yet have no problem whatever discerning what others mean when using even the worst forms of Pigeon English. Perhaps your comprehension problem denotes a certain lack of intelligence, or some failure of mental process, on your part. Have you been doing a lot of drinking/drugs, or experiencing many so called, "senior moments" lately? If you read those troubling posts more slowly, their meanings may come to you more easily . Not to mention- If you were to type slower, you'd probably find yourself posting more clearly as well. Best wishes, and I hope you can resolve your issues. =8^)
Paul,
An assured method of tempering your obsession is to deal with the illiterate on a large scale. The significance of correct grammar versus poor grammar is substantially diminished. The fact that people can convey concepts and ideas effectively is the most important part of our language. To discover the enormously large number of Americans denied the basic ability to read and write is shocking. Whatever the cause, they are in a left in a limbo without at least two-thirds of the ability to communicate. Spoken English has no real punctuation, only affectations, pauses and gestures for expression. Our efforts to duplicate those with punctuation underline the imprecise nature of our language. If you can grasp the concept conveyed then the language has performed its task.
Sure. Do away with apostrophes. THEROMANSEVENMANAGEDTODOWITHOUTSPACESBETWEENWORDSANDHADONLYCAPITALLETTERS
Hi Rodman99999,

You do understand the meaning of "might", right? :)

As for the effect of grammar on comprehension, your insinuation that it makes *no* difference is clearly quite naive. I didn't imply that it makes text impossible to understand, or even require some kind of "great effort", but it does make the brain work harder, and that's a simple fact.

Let me put it in audio terms: an analogy would be the way phase errors in reproduced music cause the brain to burn more calories untangling the audio into something it recognizes, leading to (potential) long-term fatigue.

Hope this has cleared things up for you a bit.