Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval - eviltoast
  • pumpkinseedoil@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    So if many people (still a minority by a large margin of course) started writing things like “I would of visited the museum’s today but I saw two rare bird’s, their just so fascinating.” it should become correct?

    It’s not like a majority is using apostrophes for the genitive in German. But since it’s so easy to spot the few % of miswritten genitives just stand out.

    • LwL@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      If it’s commonly understood, yes. That is how language works. Words change over time. Reading “would of” is jarring as fuck but it’s also not really mistakable for anything other than would’ve.