No other, it seems, causes so much bewilderment or is so often misused.

On the one hand, shops offer pizza's, video's and greeting's cards, then on the other childrens shoes.

The confusion is so great that many distinguished writers have argued that the best way to iron out any difficulties would be to get rid of the little squiggle altogether.

But for souls like landlord Ted Fisher, that's not the answer.

He and business partner Jenny Wilson took over The Bull's Head in Mobberley just over a year ago.

But to the villagers, The Bull's Head is actually The Bulls Head, written in gold lettering on the huge black sign.

"I noticed the apostrophe was missing as soon as I saw the sign and it really niggles at me," said Ted.

"I've put an apostrophe on all my letterheads, stationery and menus but I don't know why it's missing from the outside sign."

Ted says, thankfully, the pub sign has almost had its day.

"When we replace it there will definitely be an apostrophe on the new one because I think it is important to use the correct grammar," he said.

It's a similar story at the Bears Paw - or is it the Bear's Paw?

According to the brewery, it's both.

Landlord David Roache, who has been running the pub in Warrington Road, High Legh, for five weeks, said he had no idea why the apostrophe had not been used on some signs.

"To be honest I hadn't even noticed," he said.

"But we are in the process of making a new menu and I intend to use the apostrophe in my designs."

Last week, Brian Harrison of Sign Specialities, which makes signs for pubs, said that he would not correct a grammatical mistake in the design of a sign.

"The brewery issues us with specifications and the design has already been made," he said on Monday.

"It is down to them to put in the apostrophe or leave it out and we have to trust that they have got it as they want it."

But he suspected some breweries deliberately left them out.

"There is an awkwardness about putting in punctuation marks especially if the letters are quite small," he said.

"Breweries may choose to leave out apostrophes because they will just get lost in the text anyway."

Street signs in Knutsford are also at fault.

The town talks about Adams Hill, Seven Sisters Lane, St Peters Avenue, Ladies Mile and St Johns Road.

Yet a few yards further down St Johns Road, you find St John's Road

On Monday, a spokesman for Macclesfield Borough Council said apostrophes had not been used on council-provided signs since Local Government Reoganisation in 1974.

"We have not used them for road safety reasons," said a spokesman. "The signs are clearer without the apostrophes and so they will be easier for drivers to read from a distance."

But as for life in the real world, to some it's not good enough.

"It is a blunt fact that the incorrect use of apostrophes will make your writing look illiterate more quickly than almost any other kind of mistake," said one linguist.