Sunday, December 05, 2010

The pain of pedantry

On the drive home today I noticed a sign saying, 'Black labrador pup's for sale.'

It was very tempting to stop and ask, 'Black labrador pup's what for sale?'

14 comments:

jams o donnell said...

I know how you feel Liz!

nick said...

The constant annoyance of other people's typos, misspellings and grammar mistakes is the liability we veterans of proper English lessons have to endure....

Wen is sumthin goin to be dun abowt it?

Leslie: said...

I don't think it's going to get any better since the advent of texting...not that I text...but I hear it's a complete new language.

Liz Hinds said...

I would prefer if the apostrophe was omitted if in doubt, jams. It's less offensive that way i think.

Perhaps those nice Messrs Cameron and Clegg will sort out our schooling along with everything else, nick!

I refuse to use it, leslie. As a result it takes me ages to write even a short text message!

Katney said...

Textspeak would be okay if it were left in texts. When it shows up in blog comments, e-mails, and school assignments, well...

My ordinary typos are bad enough.

CalumCarr said...

Yes, Liz, you are a pedant ... but you're lovely with it! :)

Pisses me off too.

Ole Phat Stu said...

pls read "Eats,shoots and leaves" ;-)

But consider the poor French.
Their word "peche" has three different meaning (peach,sin,fish) depending on where you add the accents ;-)

Liz Hinds said...

You're right, katney.

Thank you, calum!

Have done, stu. It's a good job I'm not French then. Hair and horse are similar too I think. In French that is.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I know exactly how you felt!

Steve Hayes said...

It was, of cours, the pup's carrot's, cauliflour's, pea's, cabbage's and other item's that require the greengrocers apo'stroph'e.

NitWit1 said...

I'll try to edit before hitting "semd." Laptops ruin the best typist skills; my skills on regular keyboard were less than immaculate.

James Higham said...

An apostrophe in time.

Devonshire Dumpling said...

I'm looking for a black labrador pup to replace Meg but I am not sure I would be taking up any offers for a black labrador pups' as I dread to think what I'd receive.

Ole Phat Stu said...

See this photo too ;-)

http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/43b91267-da5b-4379-beb3-29c35fe92940.jpg