Curunir on 19/6/2008 at 12:34
Is there really a rule in English grammar for pluralizing abbreviated phrases? I'm not saying the apostrophe is right, I just wonder if it should be RPGs, RPG-s or something else.
Nameless Voice on 19/6/2008 at 12:56
As far as I know, you're only legally allowed to use an apostrophe to pluralise single letters and, debatably, groups of numbers (e.g. years). Both still look wrong to me, though.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plural#Plurals_of_symbols_and_initialisms) Wiki article.
Note that they clearly state that an apostrophe is wrong in an acronym.
The worst case I've ever seen is a slogan on an ink refill shop, which read:
"Save Euro's and make Cent's" [sic]
Which has no less than
four grammatical mistakes in it - not only are the apostrophes completely wrong, but the plural of "Euro" and "Cent" are "Euro" and "Cent", respectively, with no S.
pavlovscat on 19/6/2008 at 14:19
Thanks, NV! That was a good article. I think that the apostrophe should be used as infrequently as possible for plurals.
Mortal Monkey on 19/6/2008 at 14:19
I couldn't find any spelling mistakes in your posts, so I'm going to have to point out punctuation errors instead.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
As far as I know, you're only legally allowed to use an apostrophe to pluralise single letters
, and
, debatably, groups of numbers (e.g. years).
[...]
Which has no less than
four grammatical mistakes in it - not only are the apostrophes completely wrong, but the plural of "Euro" and "Cent" are "Euro" and "Cent"
, respectively, with no S.
nickie on 19/6/2008 at 19:25
Well, I don't know if we're talking about English English or American English but as far as I'm aware, NV's punctuation is absolutely correct for English English.
But it is a long time since I did English language. 'Smack on the back of the hand with a ruler' era. I'm reliably informed from something I read recently that the spacing I use with ellipses is a 'Victorian eccentricity'. So I may be wrong. :)
Mortal Monkey on 19/6/2008 at 19:51
ellipsis ;)
Also, I doubt it's entirely correct even in English English, since putting a comma both before and after "respectively" makes it ambiguous.
Green and blue is for high and low, respectively, hot and cold.
fett on 19/6/2008 at 19:53
No apostrophes in acronyms EVER. :nono:
