need help with spelling, is it lot's or lots

KiKi

starrystarry wrote: »

I know, a sign with only three words and they got the apostrophes wrong in two of them. Quite an achievement.

I dare you to vandalise the 'The'.

starrystarry

KiKi wrote: »

I dare you to vandalise the 'The'.

Ha ha! The offending sign was replaced last year by a still incorrect but far less offensive (to me anyway) "The Colliers Arms". I can live with that. If you don't know where to put apostrophes just leave them out. I can cope with missing apostrophes, it's rogue ones that give me the shivers.

KiKi

starrystarry wrote: »

Ha ha! The offending sign was replaced last year by a still incorrect but far less offensive (to me anyway) "The Colliers Arms". I can live with that. If you don't know where to put apostrophes just leave them out. I can cope with missing apostrophes, it's rogue ones that give me the shivers.

I completely understand.

The only thing grammatically worse than a rogue apostrophe to my mind is a misplaced semi-colon. They are my favourite punctuation mark, and so mis-used. Poor things.

caevans

This is so educational! Wish my English teacher had been better at explaining grammar...
Wonder if someone can advise correct grammar for this example:
I work in an older peoples service. Debates across the team as to whether peoples should have an apostrophe ie peoples' or not?
P.s. no I don't much like older peoples service either. It used to be elderly which probably isn't much better.....
Thoughts please? Would love to go into work with the correct answer :-)

KiKi

caevans wrote: »

This is so educational! Wish my English teacher had been better at explaining grammar...
Wonder if someone can advise correct grammar for this example:
I work in an older peoples service. Debates across the team as to whether peoples should have an apostrophe ie peoples' or not?
P.s. no I don't much like older peoples service either. It used to be elderly which probably isn't much better.....
Thoughts please? Would love to go into work with the correct answer :-)

It depends on whether they are referring to 'people' (one collective) or 'peoples' (more than one collective). In the context of the elderly, I can't see why they would be referring to 'peoples'. It also depends on whether or not it's being considered a name rather than a description, but I'd say it's the latter.

So assuming it's only referring to one collective and not a name, it should be Older People's Service.

caevans

So a collection of old people would = people's?
Yes, our remit is a collection of older people.
Would so love to offer a suggestion for a change in name but older people's service seems to be used across the board:-(
Thank you !

tyllwyd

If you think of 'older people' as the equivalent of 'children'

older people service = children service
older people's service = children's service

so I'd agree that older people's services is correct.

The other alternative would be 'older peoples'
older peoples service = children service
older peoples' service = children's service

but 'older peoples' doesn't sound at all right to me when you use it that way.

lostinrates

I think the harder apotrophes are these

http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apostrophes/apostrophes-with-words-ending-in-s/

I married a surname that ends with an 's' and I checked a few times on early casual invitations whether guests should come to the' as per linked example, williams' or williamses' or the Williams's house because it felt a little odd to leave it hanging there alone and add an e. I am unsure why names felt so alien to adapt to.

I should add though, I have a neurological issue that makes my language use a little individual anyway.

thorsoak

Jumping in quickly - without having read previous posts, so apologies if this has already been suggested - but EATS SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynn Truss is a good book to have around when you (or a younger member of the family) is unsure about grammar - and its funny too!

Slinky

I'm always astonished when you see professionally produced signage with bad spelling and grammatical mistakes. Surely a good grasp of English and grammar is a basic requirement of the job (or the ability to use a good dictionary and recognise when you need to do it!).