Why doesn’t the expression ‘In harms way’ have an apostrophe in ‘harms’? If I were to write ‘I was in the man’s way’ it would have an apostrophe.
Does it? Ths was on a Government poster about keeping your house clean. Strange that someone so in the public eye would make a mistake like that.
Governments are perfectly capable of hiring people who don't know how to punctuate and don't use Grammarly.
the general rule of thumb is if it could be rewritten as ''being in the way of xyz... it needs an apostrophe
It has apostrophe in dictionaries: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/in-harm-s-way
It should be "in harm's way." "Harm's" is a genitive. It's acting like an adjective with "way" as its target. It describes the "way" more than it possesses it, and together they act as a conceptual unit. It's kind of like how a "doctor's appointment" tells what kind of appointment you have, and not that it's an appointment that belongs to a doctor. So in there, "doctor's" isn't possessive either, as weird as that seems.
When I’m next in that particular mess room I’ll take a photo of the poster to prove I’m not going mad / blind.
Its not unusual for brand agencies and government consultants to cock things up... about fifteen years ago there was a government leaflet about the safe use of bikes on bridalways... they'd printed and distributed millions of the things before anyone pointed out that it's 'bridleway'
I was mistaken, sort of. It’s not a Government poster, it’s a council poster.... which says it all really!
Harms way are an American punk metal band... they can't punctuate either... may be juds employer doesn't want their employees to become rockstars
