Dear GrandWest Casino
Though we’ve had our issues in the past, I was confident that we had emerged from our journey together with a mutual respect for the English language.
I had moved on with my life, safe in the knowledge that your apostrophes had been reigned in for good. I even smiled with a knowing satisfaction when the rest of the world noticed our little tête-à-tête, thinking fondly of our time together as a bygone era of innocence, where good grammar had triumphed over mischievous apostrophes once and for all.
You’ll understand then why I almost catapulted my car through the railings on the side of the freeway one morning this week, as I entered a suspended state of disbelief after spotting one of your latest billboards. I present to you Exhibit A:
Even as I write this, I need to inhale deeply to summon up the strength to explain why this somewhat amusing headline has unfortunately been sabotaged by poor grammar.
The problem here is with the word “grannies”. In its current form, it is simply the plural of the word ‘granny’ and therefore makes no sense in the context of the headline. Without the correct form of the word (being singular), and without an apostrophe to indicate possession, this sentence makes as much sense as “Tea at carrots.” Here’s why:
To start with, there is an implied part of the sentence that does not appear on the billboard – not that it needs to. The full form of the sentence (had ellipsis not been used here) would be: “Tea at granny’s place”. Of course ‘place’ could be ‘home’ or ‘house’ or any other location owned by ‘granny’.
Ellipsis is commonplace in such an instance (another example would be “We’re all going over to Bob’s for a drink”), and there’s nothing wrong with leaving out the word ‘place’. However, you still need to retain the possessive form of ‘granny’ to maintain the grammatical accuracy of the sentence.
If you intended to communicate that there was more than one granny’s place at which tea was taking place (which would make no sense, given the use of this sentence in English to indicate teatime spent at YOUR granny’s place) then the word ‘grannies’ should have an apostrophe after the word to indicate possession of all of their places, or of a shared place owned by them all.
I would like to suggest that you move forward with disciplinary proceedings against your errant apostrophes as soon as possible, and demand that they perform their contractual obligations without delay.
Please keep me appraised of the situation as it progresses.
Until next time
Jason
Though I can agree with the grammar issue above I think the guy needs a chill pill.He’s right of course however… These days no-one seems to care as long as the message comes across.
Take “newspapers” such as “Die Son” (and others) for example. Even on TV, documentaries are described as “doccies”.
Many presenters/journalists use words and phrases they may have heard or read somewhere along the line, way out of context but they probably think they sound intelligent and who are we to judge otherwise.
My father was a teacher and we grew up having to speak properly, behave properly and to be politically correct. For me it is extremely difficult not to rectify/ critique or downright criticise people because I grew up having to always be “proper” (believe me it’s just insane so I haven’t).
The big but is that it gets you absolutely nowhere. You’ll end up with a hernia or worse….
In other words, lighten up.. You’ll of course notice these “errors”, the incorrect grammar will hurt your ears and eyes, but have you ever thought that just maybe it was done that way on purpose to draw our attention!
You see, people look but they don’t see, they hear but they don’t listen, so if perhaps the grammar is “strange” and you noticed it, the advertiser’s job is done.
Just my observation
Bettina
Thanks for such a comprehensive and considered reply Bettina.
I appreciate your chill pill suggestion (really!) but from your answer I can see that you have the same appreciation for language that I do. Also, in this specific instance, you’ll see from the links in my post (that point to my previous encounter with GrandWest) that a lot of what I’m saying is tongue-in-cheek. Not all of it, of course, because as you’ve pointed out, I care about these things more than most.
That all said, it’s up to us Bettina to carry the torch. If we don’t, who will? If everyone throws up their hands (like I did in my original tweet when I said “no one cares”) and resigns themselves to speaking and spelling and pronouncing in any way, shape and form they feel like on any given day, how will we keep the wonderful intricacies and eccentricities of this nuance-laden language alive?
Don’t let your flame go out Bettina. Keep on keeping on!