Timeline for Why did they spell it "URL’s"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 16, 2013 at 15:03 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | @Cerberus there's a difference in "incorrect because most style guides say it's wrong and it's almost died out, albeit within living memory, so even people in their thirties were taught it in school" and "incorrect because that's not how English grammar works". "Grocer's apostrophe's" is meant as an insult, albeit a mild and joking one, implying the culprit is stupid, not old-fashioned. | |
| Feb 16, 2013 at 14:54 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | @JonHanna: I see. But your definition is perhaps a bit narrower than those of others? In this context I read "grocer's apostrophe" as any incorrect plural apostrophe, if only because a grocer wouldn't know whether it was once used? P.S. It may be interesting to note that grocers in Holland struggle with the same problem. It wouldn't surprise me if the same applied to Germany. | |
| Feb 16, 2013 at 11:25 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | @Cerberus grocer's apostrophes (sometimes deliberately "grocer's apostrophe's" as a self-demonstrating joke) are cases where apostrophes are used for plurals where the language has never used them. URL's is a case where apostrophes where once standard, but are now much less common. There's a difference between so old-fashioned as to be now incorrect, and a plain mistake. (it's for its and folio's for folios are grocer's apostrophe's now; the old practices allowing them are centuries dead, so it can't be a matter of someone being old-fashioned). | |
| Feb 16, 2013 at 5:59 | comment | added | David Cary | @Cerebus: Maybe Jon Hanna is hinting at the subtle difference between the grocers' apostrophe and a grocer's apostrophe? | |
| Feb 16, 2013 at 3:13 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | @JonHanna: Hmm? | |
| Feb 16, 2013 at 0:32 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | @Cerberus it's not a grocer's apostrophe though. | |
| Mar 20, 2011 at 12:25 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | I like your grocer's apostrophe! The name alone might be enough reason to practice it... | |
| Mar 20, 2011 at 0:39 | history | answered | David Cary | CC BY-SA 2.5 |