Grammar scandal at WSJ

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Misspelling prosecutor as prosector is one thing; we all make letter-omission slips occasionally. But misspelling your version as you're version in a headline in a quality newspaper? It's a whole different magnitude of editorial sin. Yet at the time of writing, The Wall Street Journal's European edition has a headline up online saying "Prosector to Oscar Pistorius: 'You're Version's a Lie'"!

The error is the same one that gives rise to the its/it's spelling confusion. No one would make this mistake again if only they could remember (and understand) just one thing: There are no apostrophes in the spellings of any of the genitive forms of the definite personal pronouns. Look at them: my your his her its our their. Apostrophe-free, all of them.

The error was cleared away during the night here in Europe, and you may find it hard to believe that the Journal ever made an error this gross in a headline; but as regular readers will know, Language Log provides a free screen shot service! See below.

[Thanks to the sharp eye of Tricia Shannon.]



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