Monday, 3 March 2014

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 32

Variations on this have been doing the rounds for a while.* None has the apostrophe that is required, but this candidate (original source unknown) wins for inserting an extraneous apostrophe elsewhere:


Without the apostrophe, ‘hearts like dogs’ can be read in at least three ways:
1) ‘hearts like dogs [do]’ (i.e., dogs have hearts and people don’t); or
2) ‘hearts [that look] like dogs’ (i.e., hearts in the shape of dogs); or
3) ‘hearts like [they have] dogs’ (i.e., kept hearts as pets).


* Several breeds are available.
Another occasion when I wish I could draw… If you had a heart like a dog, which breed would it be?
hearts like dogs

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