Apostrophe and Compound Problems in Katrina-related Article

Once again, the current issue of 280 Living http://www.280living.com/ provides a number of opportunities to talk about grammar glitches. On the front page of the March 2010 edition, there is a wonderful article about a family from Metairie, LA that is beginning a new life in the Birmingham area. Even though I'm going to point out two Grammar Glitches in that article (See below.), I hope you will visit the website and read this interesting story about new opportunities arising from tragedy.

Here is one sentence that caught my Gramma Glitch eye:

Unaware of FEMA's plan for evacuees, the VanGeffen's made the decision to purchase a camper from a local dealer to setup at their home in Metairie to begin repairs.

There are two problems with this sentence, and both of these issues have been addressed before on this blog. First, it is NOT necessary to use an apostrophe to create the PLURAL of a word--even a proper name. These people are named THE VANGEFFENS. Unless you are speaking about something that belongs to them (e.g., the Vangeffens' camper or FEMA's plan), it is NOT necessary to use an apostrophe.

Second, the word SETUP is only used as a compound word when it is in the NOUN position of a sentence (e.g., The SETUP of the camper was difficult.) In this sentence, the writer uses TO to create an infinitive verb form, so SET UP should be written as two SEPARATE WORDS.

The sentence should read as follows:

Unaware of FEMA's plan for evacuees, the VanGeffens made the decision to purchase a camper from a local dealer to set up at their home in Metairie so they could begin repairs.

BONUS POINT: In order to avoid having two TO phrases so close together (TO SET UP AT THEIR HOME IN METAIRIE TO BEGIN), I changed the second TO phrase to SO THEY COULD.

If you'd like to check out the other blog entries on these subjects, please check out the following:

• "Proofreading with Your Parmesan" on March 1, 2010
• "More Incompetence with Apostrophes" on February 8, 2010
• "My Driveway is Clean...." on December 10, 2009

You can also click on "Compound Words" to see the five blog entries on that subject.

Have a great weekend!