Episode 3: Oop’s!
We collect signs because it’s fun to analyze them—a mini exercise in clarity. It turns out making a clear sign is not so easy. We’ll post ones we find every so often. But keep your eyes peeled—send us ones you find, and we can write them into our blog.
Can you spot the problem in this sign?
The problem is...
…a pretty big boo boo, considering the industry they’re in. It should be the plural “signs” (not the possessive “sign’s”).
It’s probably pretty obvious and comical here, but it’s actually a mistake we see a lot in workplace writing. We’ve come across giant billboards for “downtown condo’s in the low 300 000’s!!” and high-level reporting documents with sentences like “The VP’s decided on option A.”
The rules, generally
Don’t use an apostrophe for plurals, like this—Three NGO’s left the country.
Instead, simply use an “s”—The project was completed in the 1990s.
The exceptions to the rules
Use an apostrophe after the word if it could be confused with another:
Don’t—Dot your is and cross your ts.
Do—Dot your i’s and cross your t’s.
The optional exceptions
Just to make it simple for you (not), some styles differ:
Using Chicago style—Dos and don’ts
Using AP style—Do’s and don’ts
Our recommendations
Good practice is:
follow your style guide, if you have one
keep it simple (we prefer less punctuation)
keep it consistent
If you’d like a more detailed explanation on when to correctly use apostrophes (outside of just the plural apostrophe debacle), check out this article.