"Its anus". This was written on the vehicle that a lady was driving. "Anus of ...?" I was flummoxed for a while at the brazen attitude of the lady. It then suddenly dawned on me that it was not her outrageous attitude, but the handiwork of a dim witted soul who is appallingly ignorant of the Apostrophe. Yes, it must've been "It's Anu's".
While this is one extreme of disuse of the apostrophe, here is an example of unwarranted use of the apostrophe: "...all type's of agar bathi's." This man probably thinks that an apostrophe should always precede an 's' and, therefore, sprinkled redundant apostrophes all across the signboard.
God only knows (or is it KNOW's?) when people would start understanding the difference between a possessive and a plural. Ignore placing an apostrophe where due or misuse the same where redundant to lay bare your ungrammatical soul.
If neither example causes "little gasps of horror or quickening of the pulse", Lyne Truss says in her book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, "you are happily equipped to live in a world of plummeting punctuation standards."
Quite often I am tempted to remove the unwanted apostrophe. Same is the case with Dos and Don’ts too. Here again, quite often, the unwanted squiggle pokes its nose bang into your eyes in the form of Do’s.
This is not intended to criticize or insult anybody, but is, just a genuine concern of someone whose fingers itch to pickup a pen and correct the mistake, no matter who the recipient of this unsolicited help is.
The Apostrophe Protection Society says “We are aware of the way the English language is evolving during use, and do not intend any direct criticism of those who have made the mistakes above. We are just reminding all writers of English text, whether on notices or in documents of any type, of the correct usage of the apostrophe should you wish to put right mistakes you may have inadvertently made.”
Those who wish to redeem themselves may visit http://www.apostrophe.org.uk/
And, for those who have no patience to browse the above site, click here to view Bob's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe
Raj, excellent observation! So much to say, yet, it remains a fact that English is most certainly the funniest language. I think use and the importance of this Language is restricted to meager communication, as long as the point is understood. What's missed is the fact that a small error with the apostrophe can change the meaning of the sentence or even the intention!!
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