Cheque/s Nos,/No

[Tan Elaine]

1.Cheques No. 1, 2 and 3 are missing.

2. Cheques Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are missing.

3. Cheque Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are missing.

Which is the correct sentence?

Many thanks.

[Daruma]

Originally Posted by Tan Elaine

1.Cheques No. 1, 2 and 3 are missing.

2. Cheques Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are missing.

3. Cheque Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are missing.

Which is the correct sentence?

Many thanks.

Tan Elaine,

I'd prefer #3 to the others. What would you choose?

[Tan Elaine]

Originally Posted by Daruma

Tan Elaine,

I'd prefer #3 to the others. What would you choose?

Hi Daruma

I'd opt for #3 too, but I wonder whether others will agree with us.

[Tan Elaine]

Could some member please confirm whether Daruma and I are correct? Neither of us knows whether we are correct.

Many thanks.

[bhaisahab]

Originally Posted by Tan Elaine

Could some member please confirm whether Daruma and I are correct? Neither of us knows whether we are correct.

Many thanks.

1., 2. and 3. are all correct.

[konungursvia]

Well, perhaps, but not entirely. Only 2 is completely correct in my view, though 1 is also quite acceptable. Number 3 is fairly common but is an error.

It all goes back to the Italians, who gave us our modern punctuation. There are two correct ways to abbreviate:

a) Write the first letter or two followed by a period. Example: Main St. Kennedy Av.

b) Write the first letter followed by the last letter or two (traditionally in superscript), with no period: Example: Dr [Doctor], Messrs [Messeurs, Misters], No 5 [Number 5]; Kennedy Ave or Clinton Blvd and so on.

Frequently, in English people have confused the two and put a period or full stop in the second case. It has now become very common. But if you want to be entirely correct, you should omit the full stop in the second type of case, where the last letter appears alongside the first letter: Rev. or Revd, M. or Mr, Pte or Private, Sgt or Sargeant, Cpl or Corporal, Col. or Colonel, Maj. or Major, Gen. or General, Lt or Lieutenant, etc.

Strangely, we have adopted the Italian and French abbreviation for numéro / numero, [No] even though we write the full word as Number. So, putting a period after the No. is not really correct, and using the plural (numbers 1, 2 and 3) is more correct than the singular (number 1, 2 and 3).