Combi's

[Dave Plowman]

Why the apostrophe?

[BigWallop]

Because the "nation" has gone to the dogs ?

[Dougie Nisbet]

It's to warn you there's an S coming up ...

[robgraham]

Why the inverted commas?

Rob Graham

[RichardS]

You mean "gone to the dog's"

;-)

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[BillR]

These a new media shop opened in the town who nice plastic sign pronounces they sell "Books, DVDs and CD's" So I went in and asked why the apostrophe on CDs and why not on the rest? I was wasting my time, I doubt the shop people could even read..

[Dave Plowman]

What niggles me is not leaving out one where it should be, but the pretentiousness of using one wrongly, in something like that.

It's all too easy here. ;-)

[Andy Hall]

This reminds me of a conversation that I had recently with a team (one person BA and the other BAA) doing a passenger satisfaction survey in Heathrow Terminal 1 recently. They wanted to know if there was anything that I, as a regular business traveller, found annoying or inconvenient.

I remarked on a sign that they have in the gate lounges:

"Please have your boarding cards and passports ready for inspection"

I told them that either it was wrong or that it reflected a poor customer service ethic. Blank look.

I added that I was not travelling to multiple destinations, nor did I have dual nationality. Another blank look.

The point was really that if they were thinking about the passenger, customer service and treatment of the individual, then the sign would use "boarding card" and "passport". As it is, the inference from the sign is that they are treating passengers like a herd.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Ed Sirett]

AIUI the above is the correct use of an apostrophe. The word "its" defies the general rule that there is an "'s" to indicate the posessive like Mike's or Fred's. "Its" without an appostrope is a word like his,hers, yours or mine. "It's" with an apostrophe is a short form for "It is" and so the example you gave AIUI is correct.

[Lobster]

Since I travel by air more often with my brood than without, I normally hand over 5 of the things at a time, so I can't say this had occurred to me!

David

[Andy Hall]

Even then though, if the notice were made singular it would feel more directed to the individual rather than the masses.

In the same environment, the BA staff at the gate who announce that the flight is ready for boarding, also typically use the plural.

I also quite regularly use SAS who fly from terminal 3, and their staff always use the singular. On one occasion recently, there was a short delay so I was talking to one of the staff and mentioned this. She replied that this had been mentioned in their training and that of course they would use the singular because they want to treat each customer as an individual. I was impressed that they had taken the trouble and that somebody is awake when it comes to customer service.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[BigWallop]

So it's its ?