I always thought the term grocer’s apostrophe a little unfair. Many are innocent, after all. In Eats Shoots & Leaves Lynne Truss records that one apparent infraction – a stall with a sign bearing the word “Carrott’s” – was in fact no such thing. It turns out the propietor was the blameless Mr Carrott (I wonder if he had considered any other career). Nor is the common fault of inserting erroneous punctuation to pluralise a noun restricted to sellers of fruit and veg, as my local newsagent demonstrates below.
