Mind your Ps, Qs and Apostrophes!

A cartoon for the teachers who do it professionally, and one for the grammar pedants who take a keen amateur interest in the aberrant apostrophe.

(c) Dave Blazek

I’m surrounded by professional grammar police: I’m married to one, have an editor on this website as one, and several of my friends show all the traits. To this extent I’m very lucky as I seem to be leaking my once relatively well developed sense of the apostrophe as I’m getting older.

In the UK, the worst disregarders of the apostrophe are the greengrocers. I don’t understand what the connection between fruit and vegetables might be, but visit any local market in the country and you’ll find the curse of the aberrant apostrophe…

Potatoe’s and tomatoe’s being particularly common. I’ve yet to receive a coherent answer when I ask ‘Who do the Potatoes belong to?’

Happy new academic year to the purveyors of correct English. Please send us any apostrophe howlers you come across as editor Sue Cowley finds them particularly delicious. She certainly has no truck with my excuse for poor grammar… that I write as a flow of consciousness… mind you she did have a particularly meticulous teacher!

 

About educationalist04

I'm convinced we can, as a species, do much better than this if we set our minds to being much more positive and productive towards our fellow humans. The solution is learning - creating independent and autonomous learners who can problem solve, innovate and create a better more equitable and sustainable world. My books, Future Proof Your School and Re-Examining Success together with this blog, explore how better learning outcomes for all can be achieved.

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