The biggest problem with money and the English language

Many common grammatical errors bother me. “Your” vs. “you’re,” “their,” “there” and “they’re” and flat-out incorrect words and expressions like “supposively” and “play it by year.” None of these errors, however, bother me more than the misuse and abuse of the poor dollar sign.

In English, the only accepted way to write an amount of money is with the dollar sign appearing before the value. For example, it is correct to write “$20”; it is incorrect to write “20$,” “2$0,” “$20$” or any other placement of the dollar sign.

Unfortunately, I have been invited to several Facebook events in which the host demands “20$” for entry to his or her event. This is, by far, the most atrocious mistake someone can make while writing. With “your” and “you’re,” at least both spellings of the word are common, so it makes sense for them to be confused. This also applies to “their,” “there” and “they’re.” Where have Americans seen “20$”?  Please, someone who is fond of value-then-sign, name one store or one online retailer that writes its prices like that because I have yet to see it.

How many times do you need to see a price tag, a withdrawal, a transaction, anything involving buying and selling to know that the dollar sign appears before the value? It should always be written this way, whether the value is $1, $2, $3.42 or $1,000,000.

Please, event hosts, get it together. You really deserve to make no money off of your event. Technically, you never asked for it, as 20$ is not even a real thing. For all I know, that could be some type of HTML code or the name of a new Ke$ha song, because it is certainly not a monetary value.

Stop confusing the masses and place that dollar sign in front of the number you’re asking for. As Tyra Banks once yelled to an America’s Next Top Model contestant, “Learn something from this!”