Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Too easy, Martha. "It's" instead of "Its" is such a common mistake that it's/its almost accepted. Almost.

If that little restroom sign miffed you, Grant, you're likely to be even more vexed by this: the home of vagrant quotation marks

And Martha, for what it's worth, I'm 100% behind you on the "it's" v. "its" mistakes. They're downright irresponsible toward the reader!! A good friend of mine made an error like that in a piece of poetry that was published that way, and I remember asking her what it meant, (assuming, of course, she had taken creative license somehow), and she took offense at my pointing it out. Granted, we're fortunate most readers aren't robots and need precise input, but on the creative end, knowing the difference and utilizing it properly can empower so much difference in the way we communicate our thoughts in writing. My friend forgave me, but to this day I wonder about the impact the poem could make if it hadn't been crafted with distracting grammar.

I'd figure that to be true as well, but in this case, the door was in fact, a door, and so the sign was somewhat inappropriately placed in my perspective. If it had been placed on something thatweren't truly a door, but that served sometimes as a door, say a window that served as an escape route for a young child as he was looking to galavant about for the evening without their parents' knowledge, then the quotation marks would make sense to me in the way that you mention. I simply don't understand the often superfluous quotation marks that litter a lot of publications and signage. I know it's traditionally used for emphasis, but sometimes, as a reader, it's an emphasis that doesn't make sense to me.

The one excuse for the image Grant posted I can think of is that the plaque itself is an image of a door, but not actually a door, so it's a "door". But that's stretching it and I doubt it's really what the creator meant.

And Martha, I think the it's/its mistake is getting universally accepted -- but that doesn't mean is isn't still eye-scratching ignoring.

I've never heard of "shout quotes" before, but I do have a number of friends that refer to "scare quotes", used to emphasize doubt or instill uncertainty in the listener: "My 'friend' here would like to say a few words..."

Of course "it's" and "its" are different.

BTW, there was an art supply house in town with its name on a large hand-painted sign outside, "Iv'e Been Framed!" I was never sure what they thought they were saying. After a couple of years, someone fixed it.

I thought it was just that people are not really looking for a door, they are looking for the little room behind the door, to which any number of euphemisms are generally given. In Europe, everyone laughs if I say "bathroom" as it seems to them ludicrous that a public convenience would be expected to have a bath. (another use of quotation marks, I guess, is what I just did, to highlight a word one wishes to comment on.)