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Comment by HPsquared | Hacker News Reader

For some reason the "no apostrophe" thing is common in UK company names.

Interestingly, it's common in the Midwest to add "'s" where it doesn't exist when referring to a brand e.g. calling Costco "Costco's".

https://styleblueprint.com/everyday/why-do-people-add-s-to-t...

Similarly common in the UK, or at least where I am (Glasgow, Scotland).

Completely normal to say "Tesco's", "Aldi's" etc.

Marks and Spencers.

Wait..make that "Markses".

Some companies decided to embrace the pattern: Goldberg became Goldbergs, Morrisons, Dobbies...

It's because shops were traditionally named after the people who owned them. There are still loads of shops bearing people's names, even now.

"Sainsbury's" supermarket used to be "J. Sainsbury's" named after its founder John Sainsbury, &c. "Morrisons" was "Wm Morrison" founded by William Morrison. So when you refer to a shop you say Sainbury's as in [Mr.] Sainsbury's shop, or "Morrison's" as in Mr. Morrison's shop.

Then this becomes so ingrained it gets misapplied sometimes. I don't think I'd ever say Asda's though. But I would say Tesco's, even though Tesco is the initials of three people.

Surely this is the same worldwide?

As mentioned above, in Liverpool, Asda becomes Asdas. Whether it has an apostrophe or not I don't know.

Same in Liverpool, it's an Aldis or Asdas, neither of which have an S

The greengrocer’s have taken the entirety of the British High Streets apostrophe supply.

6 orange’s for just £3!

> just £3

Which is of course pronounced: JAST FREE PAAAAAARND

I think you will find that is JAST FREE PHAAAAAND

Morny stannit!

we've used ours on cocktail's for happy hour

https://londonist.com/2016/10/londons-dropped-apostrophes

Happy accident there with the URL.

It is this grammatical "mistakes" that make it so obvious a scam is a scam. I often raised my eyebrows at phishing messages and wondered if they knew grammar, but then realized in Nigeria this is their most appropriate grammatical structure and language begins with "Dear Sir..."

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