Why apostrophes are important

[upsidedown]

TGI Friday's has an apostrophe, but i can't figure out why.

Surely they would have made sure it was right before having a billion napkins etc and a flashy website made.

 

[Night Train]

For years there was a building in Mablethorpe with a sign emblazoned on the roof: "Horse's for hire". I felt irrationally irritated by it each time I passed.

It would be fine if it was a stud horse.
Would only be hiring out the horse's...

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Depends if there is only one horse for hire.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Horse is for hire. Allright, it should have a definite or indefinite article before horse.

 

[Over The Hill]

My kids (aged 10 and 12) get 50p for spotting a missing or extra one when we are shopping.
Sports shop nearly bankrupt me with the "Boys Reduced" etc.

Slightly off track but.....
Local Ice Hocky team was the Basingstoke Bisons for about five years before they took the "s" off.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I think the Bracknell ice hockey team used to be called the Bracknell Beavers, until they changed their name for some reason.

 

[zimzum42]

They have always been called the Bracknell Bees, I used to go and watch them

not much to do in Berkshire......

 

[ComedyPilot]

On a similar tune I cringe when I hear locals from Hull talking on television. They say things like, "I were walking down here and I saw....." and just as bad, "..we was watching it......" I feel very sorry for other fans in the premier league when Hull City fans start chanting, "We is Hull, we is Hull" every Saturday afternoon over winter.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

"I were" makes grammatical sense, if you think about it. Why say "you were" but not "I were"? They're both singular personal pronouns after all.
Besides, it's dialectal. All us Yorkshire folk talk like that.

 

[Andy in Sig]

You're right in that it is dialectical. Many people use phrases which are grammatically incorrect because the correct version would sound barmy e.g. you're pointing out you and some friends on a photo to somebody and you say: "That's us", and not "Those are we", which while grammatically logical, just don't sound right, do it?

 

[Yellow Fang]

Perhaps it was the Basingstoke Beavers then.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

you're pointing out you and some friends on a photo to somebody and you say: "That's us", and not "Those are we", which while grammatically logical, just don't sound right, do it?

Are you saying that "That's us" is incorrect?

I've always assumed it is "That is us" which seems entirely correct as you are referring to a single group of people (the 'us')....

...or are you also saying that the latter *could* be used but sounds bizarre.

Genuine question.

 

[Maz]

On a similar tune I cringe when I hear locals from Hull talking on television. They say things like, "I were walking down here and I saw....." and just as bad, "..we was watching it......" I feel very sorry for other fans in the premier league when Hull City fans start chanting, "We is Hull, we is Hull" every Saturday afternoon over winter.

Lived in Hull for 10 years and the accent is very distinctive. The way they used to say "dry white wine" (draa whaat waan) and British Home Stores (Herm Stirs). Cool!
Used to watch Tigers at their old ground at Boothferry a few times.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Are you saying that "That's us" is incorrect?

I've always assumed it is "That is us" which seems entirely correct as you are referring to a single group of people (the 'us')....

...or are you also saying that the latter *could* be used but sounds bizarre.

Genuine question.

It's actually not easy once you start thinking about it because daily useage has such a strong effect.

Consider this: "That's me", is what most people would say, simply because it involves the verb to be. Grammatically speaking it should be "That is I". Similarly "It is he" as opposed to "It is him".

Now that I've written this, I've started getting confused myself because the "is" clearly relates to the "that".

I've just thought of another example. You will occasionally here "Those are they" whereas most people would say "that's them" and few of us would find that to be wrong.

A lot of what is held to be correct in English is based on rules which were simply invented in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by grammarians who took latin as a model because being classical it couldn't be wrong could it. So whereas you definitely can't split an infinitive in latin, there's no earthly reason why you can't in English. I think the worst culprit for all this nonsense was a bloke called Sheridan who offered courses in "correct" English. Correctness being of course, defined by him.

 

[gavintc]

I lived just north of Hull for a couple of years and found the accent / dialect somewhat interesting. Indeed, I was at a wedding on Sat just outside Hull and had to laugh at one girl explaining how people at work "had tret me bad".