The Greengrocer's Apostrophe

[Ancient Citizen]

I was in the pub the other day and 2 spotty failed medical experiments came in. Both ordered as follows; "can I GET a coke and "Yah, can I GET a spritzer?" Who on earth is providing the influence for this shit? The standard of grammar and speech of some of these cretins is beyond belief.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I was in the pub the other day and 2 spotty failed medical experiments came in. Both ordered as follows; "can I GET a coke and "Yah, can I GET a spritzer?" Who on earth is providing the influence for this shit? The standard of grammar and speech of some of these cretins is beyond belief.

"Can I get a..." irritates me beyond all reason too.

There's something smarmy about it.

 

[mammutly]

I'm joining this thread late and have a question from an early post. (I can't qoute it becuase it is so far back in the thread (I think others can do this but I can only qoute from the last 10 or so posts))

Anyway it shows a picture saying - The fish guy's.

This was said to be wrong. Could it not be right though, if they are the 'fish guys' and that is thier shop i.e. the fish guy's shop with the word shop purposely being missing as is common and acceptable in the naming of a shop.

No it's not right. The use of the apostrophe signifies ownership or an abbreviation of "is". Clearly the latter doesn't make sense and therefore the only possible use is in the former context. But the way it's written implies that there is more than one guy. Therefore is should be "guys" (plural). If it was referring to a shop, then the position of the apostrophe would depend on whether it was one guy (Guy's shop - the guy: his shop) or two (Guys' shop - the guys: their shop).

I'd be wary of any establishment called 'The Guys Shop' or any variation thereof. ( should that be one word or two?)

 

[Pearcey]

I totally agree, Whenever I write correct punctuation is so important... The '1' key one my mobile phone packed up last week, I can only assume it's the absurd amount of commas, semi-colons, full stops and other various tools of the English language I find indispensable!

 

[Kevblue]

What about the use of their/there/they're in a appropriate sentence...... i believe an epidemic has spread like a virus across our shores, i blame the Irish.[/quote


They'res no need for that!

 

[laserblue]

I was in the pub the other day and 2 spotty failed medical experiments came in. Both ordered as follows; "can I GET a coke and "Yah, can I GET a spritzer?" Who on earth is providing the influence for this shit? The standard of grammar and speech of some of these cretins is beyond belief.

yet another american import. sometimes doubled up as, for example, "can i get a skinny latte to go" instead of "can i have a milky coffee to take away").

oh, and latte has to be mispronounced 'laaaatte' for the full effect.

 

[pee dubya]

I think i'd quite like to be a greengrocer.

 

[laserblue]

mention of there/their/they're reminds me of 'here here' when expressing approval of someone's comments. it should be 'hear hear' as it's an encouragement for others to take notice of what's been said.

 

[BlueMooney]

RESIDENTS REFUSE TO BE PUT IN SKIPS
RESIDENTS' REFUSE TO BE PUT IN SKIPS

 

[simonk]

On a theme, do you the know the one where a sentence legitimately contains the word AND 5 times on the bounce?
Do you care?