Use of the apostrophe

[Seacook]

I'm not sure the signwriter employed here had the best grasp of vocabulary either. As seen in Castleford last week.

Is "furniche" an idiosyncratic spelling of "furniture" or of "furnish"? Either could be the case.

It was mentioned in QI that deliberate changed spelling was used in commercial enterprises because terms like "Kwik Fit" can be registered whereas the usual spelling cannot.

Using 4 instead of for is something of which I do not approve.

At school in the 1960s it was pointed out in no uncertain terms that the name of the school was Wednesbury Boys' High School complete with the apostrophe.

And as an aside, how would you form the possessive of gateaux (this is an alternative to gateaus). I would plump for gateaux's but it looks very odd.

 

[pdq]

They have a branch in Dewsbury as well (or used to). Must see if that's a confrontational or comfortable shop.

 

[edwin_m]

Does the sign on the side of the shop say "style, elegance and conside"?

 

[IanD]

At least they're upfront about it being a con.

 

[Bayum]

Is "furniche" an idiosyncratic spelling of "furniture" or of "furnish"? Either could be the case.

It was mentioned in QI that deliberate changed spelling was used in commercial enterprises because terms like "Kwik Fit" can be registered whereas the usual spelling cannot.

Using 4 instead of for is something of which I do not approve.

At school in the 1960s it was pointed out in no uncertain terms that the name of the school was Wednesbury Boys' High School complete with the apostrophe.

And as an aside, how would you form the possessive of gateaux (this is an alternative to gateaus). I would plump for gateaux's but it looks very odd.

You would use the originally pluralised spelling of gateaux and add an apostrophe a as you pointed out.

In English, because we don't hear the /x/ phoneme at the end of the word, we treat it as not being there, so we can add the posessive apostrophe.

 

[poshfan]

P.S. "its" (possessive) does not have an apostrophe, I got caned at school for getting that wrong!

In old English the word "his" was used as the possessive for both neuter and masculine gender. The word "it" was already in use and the possessive form "it's" came into use by analogy with other possessive forms, and the first recorded use is in "The second book of madrigals" published by Nicholas Yonge in 1597. The possessive "it's" was spelled with an apostrophe until about 1800, from then on "its" without the apostrophe became the norm.

 

[edwin_m]

I was told at school that the apostrophe and s as a possessive was a shortening of "his", as in "Fred Smith, His book", with the apostrophe as usual standing for the missing letters. But those who understand such things seem to be in agreement that "it's" is wrong for the possessive in modern usage, just as "hi's" and "her's" would be.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The name "Furniche" would appear to be a registered trading name.

Can any member in West Yorkshire confirm that a previous trading company there was known as "i-Sleep"

 

[pdq]

Don't know about the Castleford shop, but the Dewsbury one (which, incidentally, has the correct spelling of comfort on its signage) was certainly called i-sleep previously.

 

[poshfan]

I was told at school that the apostrophe and s as a possessive was a shortening of "his", as in "Fred Smith, His book", with the apostrophe as usual standing for the missing letters. But those who understand such things seem to be in agreement that "it's" is wrong for the possessive in modern usage, just as "hi's" and "her's" would be.

This was indeed a theory at one time but was discounted long ago and it is now recognized that the 's ending is simply the last remnant of the case endings which were present in old English and still are in many modern languages. English case endings were gradually dropped in the period 1066-1200 due to Norman French being the language of the ruling elite with English only being used by the lower classes.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

And don't get me started on their, there they're, to, too, two, where, were, we're...

P.S. "its" (possessive) does not have an apostrophe, I got caned at school for getting that wrong!

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe[/QUOTE]

That is a good link here regarding the use of the apostrophe, especially noting the non use of an apostrophe for the possessive which you mention here too.

 

[swt_passenger]

I was given a tip at school, (back in the 60s!), which was simply to expand all the words using apostrophes in your sentence, and see if it still makes sense.

As an example, someone quoted a Thameslink poster seen at a station the other day, and it apparently read "We're you're new operator" or similar. No idea if that was a mistake by the person posting here, or he quoted exactly what was written.

Anyway, if you expand that out, it becomes "We are you are new operator", which shows that it's an error...