Why apostrophes are important

[Rhythm Thief]

What about 'Toys Я Us! And the spelling; it's back to front! FFS

Apparently the Oldbury branch of Toys R Us is known locally as "Toys Am We".

 

[Dayvo]

Gross-out warning.

Yes, sorry!

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Yes, sorry!

No apology required.

 

[Bug]

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

<Dons flak jacket>

I'm guessing it is the same as Sainsbury's in that the apostrophe is signifying ownership. In any case, if the apostrophe wasn't there then "Fridays" would be plural, which would then be grammatically incorrect with "Thank God It's" - they'd have to change to "TGT Fridays" (Thank God They're)!!

However, the Sainsbury's comparison doesn't really hold that much water as "Sainsbury's" indicates that the shop is (was) owned by the Sainsbury family. As far as I'm aware, there's nobody or company called "TGI Friday" which owns the restaurants, thereby imparting the apostrophe of ownership...

 

[Paulus]

Can someone explain why Earl's Court Station has an appostrophy, but Barons Court, the next station doesn't?

 

[urbanfatboy]

Drives me mad when I see 1950's rather than 1950s etc

surely 1950's is right if you are refering to, for example, the music of 1950. if you mean the music of the 1950s in general then I reckon 1950s' is correct. but often the the 1950s are abbreviated to the '50s then it seems that the apostrophes are quotes. like '50s'

 

[Paulus]

There are a few more that don't either. Kings Cross, Parsons Green, Queens Park.

 

[Fnaar]

There are a few more that don't either. Kings Cross, Parsons Green, Queens Park.

Brixton, Totteridge and Whetstone, High Barnet....

 

[Paulus]

Brixton, Totteridge and Whetstone, High Barnet....

I can see where your going with this

 

[Andy in Sig]

The presence or absence of apostrophes in place names tends often to reflect historical usage. Punctuation has varied throughout the history of English and if a place name becomes "frozen" with a certan variation at a particular time it will tend to find its way into official documents and so be fixed.

 

[Fnaar]

Some are also variable...
Google Pratts Bottom, and see for yourself!

 

[Andy in Sig]

There's a shop on Charing Cross Rd called "Henry Pordes Books". I assume that the s is part of the surname but it always makes me snigger because pording a book sounds like some sort of perversion you would associate with public schoolboys "Oh blast it Agatha, the house master has written to tell me that Henry's been caught pording his copy of Wisden again!"

 

[Carwash]

Bishop's Stortford

 

[Hugo15]

On Teesside people refer to a a group of two or more people as "yous", e.g. yous lot over there.

 

[yenrod]

Their was a pub called the COCKSWELL - only to have someone put INN on the end...then it got renamed sadly; this was an actual pub name in Liverpool.