In the UK a misplaced apostrophe (in a plural or in possessive its) is called a "greengrocers' apostrophe", presumably due to folks in that trade being particularly susceptible to errors in their signs, in turn partially due to the slightly unusual nature of the nouns they are pluralising; "bananas" is slightly teasing you to stick one in, but "mangos" more so as just looks like a Greek island otherwise, unless you opt for the -oes form.
crazygringo|2 years ago
It's the same case in the US -- you see it most in locally owned mom-and-pop style stores, especially ones that have been around for a while.
It genuinely makes me wonder if it's out of ignorance, or if it's intentionally keeping a kind of old-school charm. "If apostrophes were good enough for my grandfather, they're good enough for me!"
Of course, there's also a store local to me that has "&" on its big sign instead of "&", so I don't want to read in too much intention. (And you can tell it's not the kind of business that can afford to have a replacement sign made.)
justincormack|2 years ago