EYELASHE EXTENSIONS - What a beauty!

I'd love to think that this was a witty play on words but somehow I suspect not.

CAPITAL OFFENCES

Sure, capital letters signify importance but that doesn’t mean that everything important needs to be capitalised. That’s where things start to get really silly.

Take managing directors, for example. They think they’re terribly important and everyone else is afraid of offending them so we see much talk of “Managing Directors”, especially in business publications. 

Just because job titles are commonly capitalised, doesn't mean it's correct. The same goes for politicians and heads of state. An easy rule of thumb is to capitalise titles that come before names, but not titles that come after names.

For example:

President Michael D. Higgins was elected in 2011.

Michael D. Higgins is the ninth president of Ireland.

Children are now learning 

bad grammar in the playground...

It's no surprise that children have trouble with grammar when they're exposed to basic mistakes like this from an early age.

The word "children" is plural so the playground is designed for use by more than one child, therefore an apostrophe is needed after the "s".

Please keep an eye on your little one's what?

If I was going to the trouble of getting a sign made up, I would definitely go to the effort of proofreading it.

...in their story books...

Once upon a time there was a tank engine with a bit of a penchant for capital letters.

Thomas might have some hope of becoming a "really useful engine" if he could only stop using capital letters unnecessarily.

Thomas's driver and fireman are important but not so important that their job titles require caps. 

Pedantic, I know, but when you read the books a hundred times a day, you tend to notice these things.

...and even at the breakfast table.

Shhh! Don't tell anyone there's a mistake on the pack!

Kellogg's Rice Krispies are kindly offering a free "kids swim" at the moment. It might be an idea to also offer a free kids' grammar lesson to help make up for this mistake.

Shame about the headline!

Love is blind (and dumb)!

There’s nothing less romantic than a grammatically incorrect Valentine’s card. 

Every year people clearly blinded by love put the apostrophe in the wrong place or lose sight of it altogether.

So where should the apostrophe go?

It actually depends what you mean to say.

Valentine’s Day is called after Saint Valentine so, if that’s who you’re referring to, the apostrophe comes before the “s”. This is generally the most acceptable position.

However, the word “valentine” is also a term used to refer to a loved one so there's also an argument for putting it after the “s”, as in “Valentines' Day”, if that's what you mean.

So this year, whatever you're saying, make sure you say it with a correctly placed apostrophe.

Who says grammar's 
not life or death?

“Eats, Shoots & Leaves” may be on my top 10 favourite books list but not everyone thinks grammar is a matter of life and death. Luckily, some do...

The Over-Possessive Apostrophe

Yes, and they've gone a bit too far with that apostrophe!

I suppose when putting a euro sign in place of an "e" is your idea of creativity, what more could we expect? You can almost hear the cogs turning on this one... "It's more than one euro; isn't there a rule that says something about plurals and apostrophes? Ah sure I'll just stick one in to be on the safe side."