Apostrophe Apostacy

Those that read and have read my writing know that my grammar ain't so good.

I don't realise until its pointed out to me, and even then I don't always understand.

An old English teacher had fits of giggles with one piece I did. "You kept going in and out of the past tense" she said, "It was incredibly confusing and amusing - all at the same time"

And I frequently use 'of' when I should use 'have'. Such times I just throw my hands up in surrender and think - well as long as I use good grammar on official stuff, or that there is someone on hand to make sure that I don't contradict myself, if I am understandable, there should be no problem.

But there is just one thing...

just one thing...

oops sorry, got caught up Eurythmics-style there. There is just one bit of bad grammar that really really really really REALLY bugs me, big time. That is using apostrophes in the wrong place and at the wrong time. (That, and confusing their, there and they're)

Glory hallelujah. There is someone that also cringes when they see signs such as "Hot Cross Bun's". She's right here.

Why does it make me cringe? Because I learnt how to use the apostrophe at 7. Since 7 year olds cannot work legally, those over 16 have no excuse.

There is one who considers that we should rid ourselves of the apostrophe altogether. Like here. Hang on though - isn't this just laziness? I mean, if I removed all the apostrophes out of this one post alone, I reckon it would be near unintelligible. Text messages and e-mails apparently, make the apostrophe obsolete, as common usage is kicking the poor punctuation mark into touch. OK, whilst we're at it, lets get rid of the full stop, comma and semi-colon and get breathless when we read the stuff that are written by 17 year olds who are meant to be fully literate.

Anyway, my English teachers, bosses and myself would have nothing to moan about.