Hello Boy's and Girl's (A Classic Post)

Well boy's and girl's... just kidding... boys and girls...

This is a post that appeared on my old blog before I became Walt Clyde Frazier. I have edited it somewhat and am reposting it here.

Am I mailing it in? Probably. But, this is a subject that still irks me. Everybody has their Seinfeld-esque pet peeves, and this is still one of them. I see this at least once a week or so, and it always strikes me.


Why is it that the apostrophe is so misused in our language? Specifically, I'm referring to the mangling of pluralizing various things, and the confusion with the possessive apostrophe. I'm not an English major nor was English my best subject in high school, but this is something that even I can keep straight.

The grammatical rules seem fairly simple. However, I can't tell you how many times I see things written like "Boy's and Girl's Basketball Tryouts are this Monday" in schools, or "Freshman's Class Advisors are excused from class" in official memos from school. Or, you may see something like "Freshman Class Advisor's are excused from class" when no possessive is being used.

It's not just in schools - you'll see misusages of apostrophes in signs in stores often as well. The rules about apostrophes are fairly simple, as I understand them. Why is it so difficult for people to remember them? Do they just not care?

Another much more minor pet peeve is the usage of unnecessary quotation marks. For instance, the main office in my high school has a public restroom that has a plaque on the door which reads "Faculty Only" (with the quotes). Why are the quotes necessary? Faculty Only is not a colloquialism, nor a figure of speech. It is, infact, a quite literal directive. Only people who fall under the category of Faculty may use the room.