Carowinds grammar fail

I'm surprised to see that "Carowind's" let such a mistake get by....

Carolinas' would make peoples' heads hurt.

Seriously, making plurals with apostrophe-S has become so "normal" that linguists in the future will wonder what happened to our language. Most people do make possessives correctly....as long as the noun is singular.

English isn't a dead language....but it is in the ICU.

slithernoggin said:
I'm surprised to see that "Carowind's" let such a mistake get by....

I'm surprised you let "Carowind's" get by in your grammar correction post about Carowinds. Hehehehehe...

Seriously, the kind of stuff I see on billboards and TV commercials makes my brain hurt a little sometimes. I know we're not even close to first in education, but these people in advertising make big bucks to make ads that sell a product. Shouldn't it be done correctly?

Maybe "Carowinds" is meant to just brand the park, not the Carolina Harbor Waterpark. Hence, no pesky apostrophe is required.

bunky666 said:I know we're not even close to first in education, but these people in advertising make big bucks to make ads that sell a product. Shouldn't it be done correctly?

But aren't they paid big bucks to make ads that sell products rather than ones that contain proper grammar?

Leaving "Carowinds" -- or "Carowind's" -- aside, "the Carolina's" is just wrong.

Rollergator: Yes! English is in the ICU, and there are days when I think they've called in the priest to administer last rites...

Bunky666: I get paid no bucks to design coaster event flyers, and I would never let "the Carolina's" get past me. I have higher expectations of paid professionals.

GoBucks89: They are paid big bucks to make ads that sell products. I expect highly paid professionals to have mastered proper grammar -- it's not rocket science.

As your a self admitted rules person, I get that. Its something I can even make myself to kinda understand. Just not something me myself gets bended out of shape over. And I makes a living with words.

I think my favorite abuse of English is unnecessary quotes.

GoBucks89 said:

As your a self admitted rules person, I get that. Its something I can even make myself to kinda understand. Just not something me myself gets bended out of shape over. And I makes a living with words.

I see what you did, their. *slow clap*

Ok, I see. The Carolina's. Hmmmmm....

So if we are to include both North and South in that, which we should because Carowinds is split 50/50, then technically Carolinas' should be correct.

I'm from Columbus, Slith, and you're from Chicago by way of Ohio. I'm wondering if there isn't some kind of southern or local convention (that would seem odd to us Yankees) where North and South Carolinians consider themselves one. In other words, in speaking do they say "Oh, we're Carolinian" without a distinction, necessarily, between North and South. In that case, "The Carolina's" would be correct.

No? Then let's also consider for a moment that the theme that drives the park, and the founder's original vision, was to bring the two Carolinas together into one grand showcase. I found renewed evidence of that particularly this past spring when the park hosted "Taste of the Carolinas" featuring southern food from all around both states. So I think we're asked to believe, if for no other reason than the park's specific purpose, that Carolina is one big region and not two separate states. If so, then "The Carolina's" would be correct.

I'm not trying to defend them or peck around to find a reason why the park isn't really making a huge gaffe here,.... but, well ok, kinda. I'd at least like to give whoever is writing copy down there the benefit of the doubt.

Love ya, Slith. I'm going to stop thinking about this now, as I've worked myself into a headache typing so carefully and keeping my grammar and punctuation checked. I need to take an Excedrin and go to bed!

I feel like I need to get a t-shirt made that reads:

Carowinds announces an expanded water park and all I got was a lesson in grammar.

Ye gods! Didn't mean to give anyone a headache, especially you, Mac! Wandering apostrophes are a pet peeve of mine. It's such a simple -- and obvious -- mistake.

(Also -- just to be clear, wandering apostrophes in corporate publications are the pet peeve, not in general.)

RCMAC said:

I'm wondering if there isn't some kind of southern or local convention (that would seem odd to us Yankees) where North and South Carolinians consider themselves one. In other words, in speaking do they say "Oh, we're Carolinian" without a distinction, necessarily, between North and South. In that case, "The Carolina's" would be correct.

No? Then let's also consider for a moment that the theme that drives the park, and the founder's original vision, was to bring the two Carolinas together into one grand showcase. I found renewed evidence of that particularly this past spring when the park hosted "Taste of the Carolinas" featuring southern food from all around both states. So I think we're asked to believe, if for no other reason than the park's specific purpose, that Carolina is one big region and not two separate states. If so, then "The Carolina's" would be correct.

In that case, it would just be "Carolina's biggest waterpark." No need for the "the."

slithernoggin said:

Wandering apostrophes are a pet peeve of mine. It's such a simple -- and obvious -- mistake.

It's an apostrophe catastrophe...

OK, maybe it's not THAT serious... ;~P

Could they just have preferred the look of the 's at the end of the line over s'? To me it's a cleaner look.

Grammar, like the English language in general, doesn't let looks stand in its way :-)

But advertising does.

GoBucks89 said:

Could they just have preferred the look of the 's at the end of the line over s'? To me it's a cleaner look.

Possible, I suppose, but highly unlikely. I look at it and all I see is a mistake made by someone who doesn't know how to use an apostrophe correctly. When correct usage of the English language is hard to find even within articles posted online by who people who supposedly make a living writing articles, I seriously doubt the apostrophe's placement in this particular advertisement was a conscious marketing decision.

bunky666 said:

I'm surprised you let "Carowind's" get by in your grammar correction post about Carowinds. Hehehehehe...

I assumed it was a joke. He should have gone with that.

"Carowind's" was an attempt at a joke. I was hoping the quotation marks would give it away....