The poor little overworked apostrophe

I’m a bit of a grammar pedant – well, I have to be, it’s my job. My friends even get a little nervous when sharing their personal blogs to me, but I’m not that bad, I do appreciate that mistakes happen, especially in personal posts and ramblings and social media. But it’s when companies get it wrong that I object. When they pay money to have a newsletter, website, a poster or a sign created - and it’s wrong. When marketing material is written by someone, checked and then professionally printed - and it’s wrong.

My biggest bug bear at the moment is the apostrophe; the poor little overworked apostrophe. I keep seeing it everywhere - it’s appearing in many different places, and many of them are incorrect.  

I’m sure you already know this – but just in case you didn’t: an apostrophe should only be used to indicate a missing letter (think it’s rather than it is) or as a possession (Jane’s book, James’ trousers, or indeed sixties’ music). If a word is simply plural (more than one) then it doesn’t need an apostrophe. This was often called the Grocer's apostrophe - see the cartoon above!

At the moment, the poor little apostrophe is being overused when writing decades. How often do you see the 60’s written? It’s wrong. It’s just a plural – a numeric version of the sixties. It should be 60s. If you are talking about something related to the sixties then it would be 60s’ music – indicating it is the music belonging to the sixties (plural – so the apostrophe is after the s).

The trouble is everyone is doing it and because everyone is doing it incorrectly, then it’s spreading as we copy what we see and think that it’s right.

I’ve received two emails today from companies trying to sell to me - both of them beautifully written and produced, lots of images, amusing copy. But they contain typos. One refers to growing up in the mid 70’s (sic) and the other carries advice to make sure there are no typo’s (sic) – this particularly made me laugh. I saw a road sign the other day stating that this road is not suitable for HGV’s (I’m still asking HGV’s what?).

So please check your copy, use a spellchecker (they aren’t 100 % but they will pick out obvious typos) and if you don’t know what’s correct then employ someone who does – or just google it, there’s a wealth of information out there to help you get it write (sic).

(and if anyone finds a typo in this, it’s there as a deliberate mistake. Honestly…)