Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

More apostrophe's - a sign in a local hairdresser informs passer's-by that "Appointments are not alway's necessary"

Local junk shop put up a sign saying: "From June the shop will be closed on Wed's." I considered it for while and decided it was probably all right - though possibly by accident.

[Pabmusic]

Local junk shop put up a sign saying: "From June the shop will be closed on Wed's." I considered it for while and decided it was probably all right - though possibly by accident.

Clearly the owner was ultra-pedantic - and most likely aware of this thread, to boot. He or she probably writes "sha'n't".

[Richard Tarleton]

Hand-written notices one thing. Surprisingly how many tradesmen have superfluous apostrophes on their white van's [] - you'd think professional signwriters would be wise to this....

[gurnemanz]

Local junk shop put up a sign saying: "From June the shop will be closed on Wed's." I considered it for while and decided it was probably all right - though possibly by accident.

Wed's is surely wrong. The rule is that 's is not used for plurals, even of abbreviations or truncations. There are, however, exceptions and anomalies. Fellow pedants around here may be interested in this site which discusses a few genuine problem cases, such as do's and don'ts. (Point 11 on that site).

PS



This sign is presumably owned by a speed camera.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Clearly the owner was ultra-pedantic - and most likely aware of this thread, to boot. He or she probably writes "sha'n't".

Shou'dn't've s/he?

[french frank]

Wed's is surely wrong. The rule is that 's is not used for plurals

It might just have been a singular abbreviation of Wednesday, where Weds was taken as the abbreviation and the apostrophe represents the omission of the 'ne'.

So it may be wrong but why it's wrong could be debated.

In the speed camera notice the camera symbol could mean 'in operation here' and the notice an abbreviation of Speed camera is in operation here.

No, not really ..... :-)

[Pabmusic]

Shou'dn't've s/he?

Don't you just hate s/he? If the sex of the subject is unimportant and we want to be sensitive to the issue, 'they' is so much more elegant. "If someone wants to be sensitive, they might use…" Shakespeare used 'they' as a singular and it's been a common enough feature of English ever since.

Easier still, use all plurals - "If people want to be sensitive, they…" - unless context might make it seem silly.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I was in Kirkbymoorside in North Yorkshire this morning and saw this sign over a shop:

C, CARTER

[ardcarp]

Well he was obviously a carter called C. As in:

BOB, BUILDER

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I thought it might be text-speak, beginning a sentence in the vocative:

See, Carter….

[LeMartinPecheur]

Not a gripe about current usage but a straight question: Does anyone here pronounce forte (as in "His forte is public speaking") as a monosyllable?

I'll explain later if anyone's interested...

[Bryn]

Not I.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Nor I.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

…..

I'll explain later if anyone's interested...

Come on, LMP, don't keep us hanging on.

[jean]

Not a gripe about current usage but a straight question: Does anyone here pronounce forte (as in "His forte is public speaking") as a monosyllable?

As it's French rather than Italian in origin, I can't see why anyone would not pronounce it as a monosyllable!

The OED says:

Pronunciation: ( /ˈfɔːti/ , /ˈfɔːteɪ/ , formerly /fɔːt/ )

Etymology: < French fort, absolute use of fort strong