In 2017, an anonymous vigilante spent their nights travelling round the streets of Bristol with their self-made 'apostrophiser'. Their mission: to correct the city’s poorly punctuated signs.

The apostrophe takes the place of the removed letters. This is how it contracts the two words together. It can't be used for everything however. But…by hunting out the right letters, the new word is ...

One of the first things new copy editors learn is that they should change the contraction ‘til to the word till, or, in more formal contexts, until. Then, if they’re anything like me, they spend the ...