I should be packing
Mar. 25th, 2008 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumKnow what I'm not doing? Packing.
But...I wanted to share this with you all. I thought at first it might do for Mock-the-Stupid, but it's really more of a grammar thing, and I don't belong to any of those 'grammar-nazi' things, and usually when one brings up grammar on MTS someone will get offended and it turns into a whole thing.
Anyway...
I was on the train this Sunday, heading to my parents' house, and this advert for a college caught my eye. College, mind you.
Can you spot the mistake?
It says "Only 36 credits away from hanging your diploma next to your sons."
Sons. Plural, not possessive.
I stared at this awhile. I then pointed out to Charlie the error of grammar committed by this college's advertisement, explaining to him that, by leaving out the apostrophe, one imagines that the person in question is not proudly hanging his own diploma next to the one his son earned, but rather hanging his diploma next to the hanging bodies of his sons.
Okay, I didn't tell him that part; but it is amazing how improper punctuation can change the entire subtext of a sentence, isn't it?
But...I wanted to share this with you all. I thought at first it might do for Mock-the-Stupid, but it's really more of a grammar thing, and I don't belong to any of those 'grammar-nazi' things, and usually when one brings up grammar on MTS someone will get offended and it turns into a whole thing.
Anyway...
I was on the train this Sunday, heading to my parents' house, and this advert for a college caught my eye. College, mind you.
Can you spot the mistake?
It says "Only 36 credits away from hanging your diploma next to your sons."
Sons. Plural, not possessive.
I stared at this awhile. I then pointed out to Charlie the error of grammar committed by this college's advertisement, explaining to him that, by leaving out the apostrophe, one imagines that the person in question is not proudly hanging his own diploma next to the one his son earned, but rather hanging his diploma next to the hanging bodies of his sons.
Okay, I didn't tell him that part; but it is amazing how improper punctuation can change the entire subtext of a sentence, isn't it?