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This story in the "Yountville Sun" (a town in northern California) shows the importance of apostrophe placement in a wine-based legal dispute. https://yountvillesun.com/the-apostrophe/ The apostrophe By Richard Puntillo September 11, 2025 In this piece, I want to tell a true story of the importance of the apostrophe. Indeed, the exact placement of an apostrophe was central to a decision of the California Supreme Court. The story begins some 50 years ago in Paris at the inter

For those of you not familiar with it, Countdown is a much loved British TV game show involving word and mathematical tasks. It's been running since 1982, currently on its 92nd series! One of the regular co-presenters is the lexicographer Susie Dent. On the show broadcast on 23 March 2026, she stated: "There is an Apostrophe Protection Society and I kind of secretly admire them." It might only be a small mention, but from Susie Dent it's a big moment! And, very importantly, i

There is quite a good article on the apostrophe on RTE's website (RTE is the national radio broadcaster in Ireland).The article, updated in January this year, also has a link to an interview I did on RTE back in September 2023, so it's doubly worth having a look at. Here's an extract of the article to set the scene: Analysis: This little piece of punctuation has been labelled 'aberrant', 'troublesome' and 'ambivalent' and is regularly embarrassed in public places By Deborah T