glaring grammatical error’s in important thing’s

I travel a lot and find that in many of the places I visit, people who learn English as their second, third or fourth language often speak it better than native English speakers. When in Denmark, I was actually corrected by a Norwegian on the incorrect use of the word “less” (in the place of “fewer”). I hear the mistake so frequently that it has become normal to my ears and I now make the same mistake myself. It’s embarrassing, really, that native English speakers don’t take pride in their language the way that many others do (e.g. the French).

I understand that mistakes are sometimes made purely because of haste. However, I see glaring errors in important documents such as resumes. Don’t you think that if you’re applying for a job, you should have someone proofread the one document you’re submitting to strangers in order to be considered? Other horrible examples are street signs, restaurant and store names, and blog titles—not posts, actual blog names. And so, today, I have to write my sad note to Ponyknit.

Dear Ponyknit,

You’re a molecular biologist, an avid knitter, and a horseback riding instructor. You sound like a pretty cool person. I think it’s hilarious that you’ve made felted clogs, I feel your pain on your break up with the boyfriend and I’ve tried all your quizzes (and discovered that if I were knitting needles, I’d be turbo charged, if I were a flower I’d be a snapdragon, and if I were a finger, I’d be the pinky). I love that you blog about this stuff. And, really, you’re a contributor to the Christmas around the world knitters swap blog, which sort of defies description.

But it really makes me sad that you’ve headlined your blog “If Pony’s could knit.” I would have thought that someone as interesting as you, who even rides horses, would know that the plural of “pony” is “ponies”—or at least, that one of your blog visitors would have politely pointed that out by now.

I don’t want to belabour the point, but so you know for next time, nouns are never made plural with the inclusion of an apostrophe. Apostrophes are only used for one of two things: to mark that a word has been abbreviated or to indicate possession, in that order. (I say “in that order” because in the case of “it’s,” the apostrophe indicates abbreviation and “its” is for possession. But I don’t want to mess you up with that just yet.) So go make some more clog's clogs, indulge in retail therapy to rid yourself of the ex boyfriends boyfriend’s bad aura, and keep sharing those quizz’s quizzes!


RainyBow

_______________________________


SunnyShine note: I cannot even look at the subject line of this post without feeling anxiety. Rampant apostrophe misuse drives me crazy. Speling errers do as well. I took a look at her blog and had to avert my eyes for the most part. I do, however, feel badly about her breakup and that the boyfriend took the dog. Sad. I am also concerned about this: 'I had picked up a Kenny Chesney Flip Flop Summer Tour key chain'. Ahh, she makes it too easy. I would pay money to see a pic of this key chain. The description makes me howl and I want one for myself. lmao.