Custom Search

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

How many of your "life's" have been enhanced by warning labels?



I'm back on my apostrophe kick this afternoon after a friend sent me a hilarious e-mail about oddly worded warning labels. I'll share a couple of those with you in a minute, but first to the GrammarGlitch part. The headline on the e-mail said this:


No telling how many life's have been enhanced or saved because of these warning labels!


Whoops! I have said it before, and I will continue to say it: Please do NOT use an apostrophe + an "s" to make a word plural. In this case, the word LIFE becomes LIVES when it is plural. The sentence should read as follows:


No telling how many lives have been enhanced or saved because of these warning labels!


There are only two instances where you would use "life's." One is when you are talking about something that BELONGS to "life." For example, a sentence like one of these:


Catching Grammar Glitches can be one of life's little pleasures.


My life's ambition is to write the great American novel.


The other instance is in casual, conversational writing where you create a contraction of LIFE and IS or LIFE and HAS, as in the following sentences:


Life's (Life is) frustrating sometimes.


I feel as if my life's (life has) been rescued.


Now, I think you will enjoy a couple of these hilarious warning labels. I might comment that a good proofreading editor would have fixed these, but then we wouldn't have the chuckle:


Many brands of Christmas lights contain the following warning: For indoor or outdoor use only. Hm-mm, I wonder where else they are worrying about.


A Sears hairdryer carries this warning: Do not use while sleeping. Who would go to bed with their hair wet anyway?


Some Swanson frozen dinners offer this serving suggestion: Defrost.


A brand of bread pudding warns: Product will be hot after heating. Duh!


No comments: