Dear members,
Welcome to the October 2024 newsletter from the Apostrophe Protection Society. As always, thank you for being members and for supporting the APS. If you're a new member, I've already welcomed you with a separate email, but I'll welcome you again here. Welcome!
I'm delighted to report that membership is continuing to grow at a slow but steady rate. As I noted in the last newsletter, we reached the milestone of 4000 members in July; that figure has now grown to nearly 4,400 - a total that continues to amaze me. The size of the membership helps to give the APS more credibility, and that's really good for supporting our overall goal of preserving the correct use of the apostrophe. If you have friends or colleagues who are similarly inclined who haven't yet joined, please encourage them to go to the website and join.
You may recall from the May 2024 newsletter that North Yorkshire Council in the UK had scrapped their plan to drop apostrophes from road signs following a successful campaign from local residents and the APS. The very same council then managed to gain more unintended media coverage in August by making an apostrophe-related Yorkshire dialect error on the posters for an anti-litter drive. Dialects are always a bit of a challenge, particularly when written. But North Yorkshire Council made a glaring error in their placement of the apostrophe in the Yorkshire dialect for asking people to put litter in the litter bin. The headline should have read "Gerrit in t'bin" (with the apostrophe showing the dialect contraction for "in the bin"), but it was wrongly printed as "Gerrit in't bin". Even those unfamiliar with the Yorkshire dialect can see that the apostrophe was wrong. After widespread media coverage the Council duly apologised and had the posters reprinted. I posted the story on the blog pages in August if you want to see the actual offending poster: https://www.apostrophe.org.uk/post/gerrit-in-t-bin
The use of the apostrophe also featured in a recent story from Germany. Briefly, the story is that whilst the German language doesn't traditionally use apostrophes to indicate the genitive case or possession, new guidelines have made it acceptable to use what has become known as the Deppenapostroph (“idiot’s apostrophe”) as long as it separates the genitive "s" within a proper name. Thus signs such as "Rosis Bar" can legitimately have an apostrophe and become "Rosi's Bar". It's an interesting change, and brings it closer to the English language use of the possessive apostrophe. I was interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland on this story, and apostrophe use/misuse in general, shortly after the story appeared. I've posted the original story, as covered by The Guardian newspaper, on the blog pages - if you're interested, you can find it here:
I had one small success story over the summer with persuading a small restaurant chain in the south-east of England to stop tormenting me with incorrect apostrophes in their frequent email advertising. The chain - Heaven's Kitchen - successfully used the apostrophe in their own name, but every advert that they sent via email or through social media was littered with incorrect apostrophes, mainly of the "Greengrocer's apostrophe" variety with apostrophes in simple plurals - apostrophe-s in the plurals of days of the week (Tuesday's) was their speciality. I wrote to them several times, and finally they got the message. Their advertising material no longer has all those incorrect apostrophes, and it's no longer giving me indigestion!
I've received several emails regarding the correct use of "until" and its variants, and I thought it might be useful to provide a quick clarification here:
- Until - indicates when something will happen, begin or end (note the single "L")
- Till - (note the double "L" and no apostrophe) means the same thing as until, but it is not an abbreviation or a modern version of until (it actually predates until in use)
- 'Til - this does get used as an informal shortening of until, but it's generally frowned upon by style guides
- 'Till - is just wrong - don't use this!
Thank you to all those of you who have sent in photos with apostrophe errors over the last few months. There have been some shockers! I've picked some of the best/worst and you can find these in the "Latest Examples" list on the website.
Finally, can I give you a gentle reminder that the APS Store sells not only APS T-shirts but also Hooded Tops, Sweatshirts, Tote bags, and Mugs. With Christmas coming up, perhaps these could solve your Christmas present needs. All the details are on the Store page on the website.
That's all for this edition of the newsletter. Once again, thank you for being members - it helps to give the APS credibility, and I really appreciate your support.
Best wishes,
Bob