There is no excuse for a road sign on a Highway 404 off-ramp that twice botches the spelling of Markham.

Spelling doesn’t seem to be the priority it once was, nor is punctuation. One of the most cringe-inducing mistakes made on commercial signage is to add an apostrophe where it isn’t needed.

We noticed a sign about “cupcake’s” at our local grocery store this week, as though a cupcake is the owner of something or other.

But when a roadside sign put up by the province to guide drivers to local points of interest can’t even get the name of the town right, it makes people wonder what else it could screw up.

A reader sent us a photo of a sign on the ramp from the southbound 404 to Highway 7 in Markham, where the H is missing from the town’s name, not once but twice.

“How is it possible to put up a sign that has the spelling of the town wrong?” asked the reader.

“Maybe nobody cares, but it grates on my nerves that visitors come to Markham, get off at that exit and joke about it.”

We went there and found one of the familiar blue-and-white signs used on provincial roads to point out attractions directing people to the “Markam Museum” and “Markam Theatre.”

Didn’t anyone where the sign was made check the spelling? Shouldn’t the mistake have been obvious?

Why didn’t the guys who erected it spot the error, and say something? It’s not like Markham would be used to trip up contestants at a spelling bee.

It’s more likely that the overall level of public spelling proficiency has slipped to the point where few people even notice such an egregious error.

STATUS: Astrid Poei, who deals with media for the transportation ministry, said she’d arrange to have someone check out the sign and restore the H to Markham, ASAP.

What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To email us, go to www.thestar.com/thefixer and click on the “submit a problem” link. Or call us at 416-869-4823.