Charles in Denver sent in this apostrophe catastrophe from a market that has special hours on Sundays.
Two out of three apostrophes on this sign are correct at least. Incidentally, instead of using an apostrophe in 'til, you can just write till. It's a word. Really!
Thanks, Charles.
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8 comments:
Until formed from the word Till, so till is an older word.
The only correct apostrophe on this banner is the one in the logo. The marks in the word _'til_ are actually single open quotation marks. The sign maker typed the character next to the semi-colon. His or her computer program assumed that that character — which in typewriter days served as an apostrophe, a single closing quotation mark, AND a single opening quotation mark — would _not_ be an apostrophe at the beginning of a word. _'Til_ is wrong more often than right in these days in which anyone can be editor, proofreader and typesetter all rolled into one.
And since we are picking nits', there are actually four apostrophe's in the s'ign.
Till would not be correct here either. The only time till is a word is when it's used as a verb. "My mom was tilling her garden last winter." If you were shortening until, 'til is actually correct. The apostrophe is used in place of the missing letters just like any contraction; can't, shouldn't, wouldn't. However the Sunday's is making me twitch.
Hi Dorothy,
I used to think that about "till" but it's actually a full word that means "until" now.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/till
Hi Becky,
Well I didn't believe you, particularly for us Brits, so I checked the OED. Blow me but it seems "till" precedes "until". http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/till?q=till . Hence the expression: to continue "till the cows come home".
Simon
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