Melissa sent in this sign from her local Wal-Mart:
She says that she thinks the sign writer wasn't sure about any of the apostrophes, so she placed three of them tentatively. Well, two out of three ain't bad!
Thanks, Melissa! And Happy (belated) Father's Day to all the fathers out there, especially mine.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
This Is Pretty Tacky, Even for Wal-Mart
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16 comments:
Very strange capitalisation, the only word I'd put with a capital would be "Father", and certainly not Day and Plans
Also, since "plans" are plural, it sould be "What are you plans?" and not "What is your plans?"
oops, typo, "sould" should be "should" - I should have read that better.
Well, "Father's Day" is the name of the holiday, so both of those words should be capitalized, but not "plans." Good point about the subject-verb agreement (is vs. are). I should have mentioned that.
My comment doesn't have to do with grammar or punctuation (which has already been covered thoroughly) but just to say this is one lame-ass sign to be up in a store like that. It looks like it belongs in some mom & pop corner store somewhere.
If two out of three are correct then it follows that the writer means, "What is your father planning for the day?" (if there is such a thing as a 'day plan').
I would say that almost nothing is correct about this sign; what's should be what are. Father's should be Fathers' or Fathers and, of course, plan's should be plans
I think it should be What are your Father's Day plans? The apostrophe goes before the s in Father's Day.
It's "Walmart."
Traditionally, the name of the store contained a hyphen. I think both are correct. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/less_hyphen_more_burst_for_wal.php
it's Walmart for individual retail stores and Wal-Mart for the corporate entity...I called them once to clear it up
Wow, that's really interesting! Thanks for the insight.
interesting for copyeditors. nobody else on the planet gives a crap.
anyways, i fully support taking corporations and instituions to task for shitty grammar skillz but individuals not so much. a magazine i worked at once did a piece about lousy public grammar and bound in "grammar citations" readers could issue to offenders. somebody rightfully pointed out that several examples we used were probably created by people undereducated through no fault of their own, and went on to chastise us college-educated folk for being so snooty. lesson learned. many walmart employees fall into the undereducated category, and while it's amusing to us, it's rather sad for them. such people are fair game for me if they are asking for it by, for example, holding a sign reading "get a brain! morans."
I beg to differ; the apostrophe comes after the s in Fathers' Day. It is a day for all fathers, not just one.
http://www.betterwritingskills.com/tip-w011.html
I agree with Sophisticate's Diary's (that looks weird with the double apostrophe) point about how the apostrophe should be after the s in Fathers since the holiday is for all dads, but unfortunately it's not that way (same with Mother's Day). Note, however, that Presidents' and Veterans' Day get the plural advantage. How strange...
To S.D. and others --
Let's not proclaim something as fact because we think it should be true. You'd think it would be "Fathers' Day" but consider this:
People in the 1800s may have said "Today we honor Father" or "Today we honor Mother."
Not counting stepfathers, or biological fathers vs. adoptive fathers, etc., everyone has one father, so it's (your) Father's Day.
But as braincrisp noted, we honor multiple U.S. Presidents and multiple Veterans on their respective days.
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