HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

Unloved and ignored: Our poor apostrophe!

Written April 13th, 2014 by Hasso Hering

100_0608100_0609100_0610100_0612

From time to time I have tried to provoke my fellow fans of the English language by calling for the abolition of the apostrophe, especially when it’s used to denote the possessive or genitive case of a noun. Looks like I could have saved myself the trouble.

Looking at signs around town, I get the feeling that the possessive apostrophe has already vanished. It’s been consigned to oblivion. And in the one of the four examples above, it has been retained but used as though the sign maker assumes that one hapless owner is going to be dinged for the expense of an entire fleet of cars being hooked up and dragged away.

You’d think that after all these years of complaints, sign makers would have got the word. Evidently not. On the other hand, maybe they just wanted to get a rise out of somebody with something they wrote? Nah, nobody would do that. (hh)





Comments are closed.

 

 
HH Today: A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley
Albany Albany City Council Albany council Albany downtown Albany Fire Department Albany housing Albany parks Albany Planning Commission Albany police Albany Post Office Albany Public Works Albany riverfront Albany schools Albany Station Albany streets Albany traffic Albany urban renewal apartments ARA Benton County bicycling bike lanes Bowman Park Bryant Park Calapooia River CARA climate change COVID-19 Cox Creek Cox Creek path Crocker Lane cumberland church cycling Dave Clark Path DEQ downtown Albany Edgewater Village Highway 20 homeless housing Interstate 5 land use Linn County Millersburg Monteith Riverpark North Albany ODOT Oregon coast Oregon legislature Pacific Power Portland & Western Queen Avenue Republic Services Riverside Drive Santiam Canal Scott Lepman Talking Water Gardens The Banks Tom Cordier Union Pacific urban renewal Water Avenue Waterfront Project Waverly Lake Willamette River


Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved. Hasso Hering.
Website Serviced by Santiam Communications
Hasso Hering