Apostrophes: Do they matter?

[MickeyTheBrick]

Does the misuse/omission of apostrophes irritate you? What about any other punctuation errors or turns-of-phrase? eg 'basically....' or 'so I turned round and said...'
One of the ones that does my head in is when people think they are speaking correctly by saying eg 'it was for Paul and I' instead of 'it was for Paul and me'.
Incidentally, can I pre-empt my stalkers and say, yes, I am sometimes anal retentive.

[jackthehat]

Anal-ly retentive...........

[MickeyTheBrick]

LOL, Jack. I genuinely made that mistake to flush out the other anal retentives........honest, guv :)

[ttfn]

New balls please

[boxtops]

Yes mickey - I agree. We have regular threads on here every few months on this subject, and those of us to whom it matters get out our pedant hats.

[yogasun]

Count me in as one of those with a pedant hat

[woofgang]

Dons pedant hat decorated with yellow flowers and a chick

[MickeyTheBrick]

Surely not, Boxtop! Pedantic people in AB? I don't believe it, lol :)

[MickeyTheBrick]

<'Dons pedant hat'>
The irony could be cut with a knife.

[anneasquith]

not for the first time will i say this............ i am posting on the net. not doing an english essay, if it irritates some abers, im sorry but i wont be changing !

[MarkRae]

Punctuation exists to assist clarity of meaning. E.g. you may or may not disagree with the following phrase: A woman without her man is nothing.

But, what I meant to say was: A woman: without her, man is nothing.

No problem in speech, of course, because the correct meaning would be conveyed by means of pause and emphasis....

[saxy_jag]

If people don't know better, then I can tolerate it. What annoys me are those who, when you explain why it's wrong, turn round and tell you it doesn't matter. It's even worse when they're your boss and should know better.

[Mamyalynne]

If the reply is on a board like this and am typing quickly, then I may leave them out. But if writing a letter, I always punctuate properly.

I am wearing a tin hat.

[MickeyTheBrick]

Woah, Anne, where did that come from? It's only a topic of discussion. Incidentally, of the few posts I've seen from your 'pen', I can't say I've noticed anything amiss. I like your points of view :)

[MickeyTheBrick]

Mark Rae: brilliant, that! It's an eats leaves and shoots moment.

[MarkRae]

What are you apologising for, Anne...?

[anneasquith]

mickey,,,,,, that was me being nice :)

[MarkRae]

Eats, shoots and leave, actually...

[Prudie]

It doesn't irritate me but it does make think the author didn't reach the correct standard of eduaction. Not so much on here but certainly with those I work with.

[MickeyTheBrick]

:) Anne

[MarkRae]

Indeed. There's no excuse for it in business. I received an email a few months ago from my new "bank manager", and it was riddled with errors - your / you're, referring to me as "yourself" etc. I haven't heard from him since...