The title of this post literally translates to "the English teachers will overcome!" (I think) and it most concisely expresses the fact that I am a language Nazi. Now that doesn't mean I want to go to war with my neighbors in order to exalt the great Noun, or that I advocate exterminating all those vile participles. And I don't belabor under the myth that "Verb makes us free!" Rather, there is just something that irks me - irks me to the core - about very public grammar mistakes.
First, a caveat: I know, I readily admit, that I am far from perfect, and have surely made my share of language mistakes. However, I am not paid to install restaurant signs, make TV advertisements or, for that matter, proofread the title sequences of TV shows.
What brought all this on, you might ask? Well, one of my guilty pleasures is to watch the dregs of reality TV on VH1, MTV, etc. So, this afternoon I was checking out the latest episode of the MTV series "From Gs to Gents" on my DVR. Now, for those of you unaware of the great metamorphosis that is "From Gs to Gents", essentially the idea is that Puff Daddy's (P Diddy's?) handmaiden Fonzworth Bentley lives in a house with about a dozen "gangstas" (hence "Gs") and is supposed to teach them how to become gentlemen (the Gents part). For all their hard work, the most gentlemanly G winds up winning a fair amount of money in the end.
In any event, I noticed today that the title sequence (which runs as an intro and outro for commercial breaks) is grammatically incorrect. That is, it is entitled "From G's to 'Gents". This latter apostrophe I can stomach, since it is indicating the contraction for gentlemen, but to have an apostrophe between "G" and "s" indicates that this program is about turning something that belongs to one particular G into a gentleman. Take, for example, if the show was entitled "From Whores to Housewives". Of course, putting an apostrophe before the "s" in "whores" turns the word into a possessive (something that belongs to one whore). Same thing for "Gs". If "G" is a noun - which, in this case it appears to be - then it's multiple is Gs, not G ' s.
This wouldn't have probably bothered me quite so much, except for the fact that last week's episode purported to teach the Gs proper grammar and diction. Perhaps Mr. Bentley needs to take the apostrophe out of his own G before he points out the incorrect grammar of his wards.
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True - but the correct grammar rule when using a letter on its own it to use the apostrophe to indicate multiple:
ReplyDeleteTo avoid confusion, add 's to single letters: Dot your i's. She earned two A's and three B's on her report card. Add s to multiple letters: He knows his ABCs. They have three color TVs
http://leadinggeeks.blogspot.com/2008/04/grammar-geek-plurals-and-apostrophes.html
ReplyDeleteI point out the latter because there is some contradiction when it is capitalized? This is a first of news for me - and Strunk and White don't seem to have a say :[
ReplyDeleteSo anyway - I'm with this "goofy" comment who cited the The Oxford Companion to the English Language and that all letters appearing on their own [or abbreviations] get the apostrophe.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I have no idea why I had this conversation in 4 comments. Sorry!