conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-04-30 11:38 pm

Help me figure this out

I saw a truck today with writing on the upper corners.

On the upper left corner it said:

Gourmet Chips
And Pretzel's

and on the upper right corner it said:

Healthy Foods
And Drink's

So... what, exactly, did that person think the apostrophe is for?

Also, don't want this getting lost: My credit union is asking us all to contact our congresscritters. Honestly, maybe I should buy a book of postcards. Of course, my handwriting is terrible....

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glaurung: (Default)

[personal profile] glaurung 2025-04-25 07:41 am (UTC)(link)
The sample size is small, but it looks like the rule in their head is, a plural ending in S gets an apostrophe when it is the last word?

So they’d write “milk and egg’s”. But not “egg’s and milk”.
Edited 2025-04-25 08:03 (UTC)
steorra: Part of Saturn in the shade of its rings (Default)

[personal profile] steorra 2025-04-25 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Another possible rule is that the apostrophe is only for "longer" plurals, i.e. plurals where the base word is more than 4 letters, so "Chip" and "Food" are too short for an apostrophe. (It can't be based on syllable count, obviously.)

I also wondered if it's based on anything about the class of sounds the word ends with, but I can't find anything. It would have been interesting if it was only after voiced sounds and not voiceless ones, or vice versa, but that doesn't work.