Postrophes

Ah yes, l’apostrophe du marchand de fruits et legumes! See, I thought that it was frightfully clever and witty to write that in French, because the British tend to think that to write in French or even in Franglais shows how frightfully clever and witty they are. Which it doesn’t.

The French, on the other hand, like this shop-owner in Avallon, make the mistake of thinking that to write in English is cool. They are wrong. It is not. Especially when you get every possible apostrophe-opportunity wrong.

Of course, the correct version of MEN’S GIRLS’ DENIM JEANS (which I suppose is as correct as it gets) is an apostrophe lesson in itself, an exciting opportunity for an apostrophe nerd like me who thinks it’s her duty to foist the gospel of the correct use of the apostrophe on an unwilling and entirely uninterested mankind.

You may well know that “an orange” began life in English some time ago as “a norange” and time moved the n across. Well, I am single-handedly trying to change the phrase to “a postrophe” rather than “an apostrophe” as in my exciting example “You need a postrophe after girls because it means the denim jeans of, or belonging to, the girls.”

You see? Much easier to say, much less clumsy! - - Oh, I can tell already that you don’t care. But some people are obsessed with fast cars and in my case it’s postrophes.