Poll: Do you use an apostrophe in plural dates?
Do you use an apostrophe in plural dates? |
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Votes: 1910
Comments: 16
Added: September 2003
Comments:
| Karen Skullerud - 15th October 2003 21:06 |
| According to the current MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, fifth edition, 2.2.7, "Do not use an apostrophe to form the plural abbreviation or a number." |
| Willbut - 2nd November 2003 22:01 |
| I can't see any need to do so either. |
| tdol - 6th November 2003 23:40 |
| There is a case for using it with single letters to breaks them up: Mind you p's and q's. However, you could also say: Mind your Ps and Qs. ;-) |
| Bridget - 7th November 2003 22:44 |
| I believe that this mistake started when people abbreviated the decade. I can see '70s accidentally becoming the dreadful, evil, incorrect apostrophe way in a heart beat! Thank God that our correct side is winning this battle! |
| Willbut - 9th November 2003 21:38 |
| In the UK, the correct side are losing everywhere in the apostrophe war's. <gggg> |
| Joan - 15th November 2003 01:43 |
| Never. |
| Asif - 11th February 2004 21:54 |
| Not sure if the apostrophe should be used, but it looks ok! My English isn't as you can tell; need to improve it in all areas |
| lenny - 5th March 2007 13:29 |
| hi everybody :) Actualy I'm learning english so (GOOD LUCK FOR MY SELF) I have question about this vote so I did 1970's it's wrong answer? |
| Boywonder - 18th May 2007 17:54 |
| No apostrophe. In this example, the 1970s is a collection of years (1970, 1971, etc.) and hence “1970s” is plural which does not require an apostrophe. |
| Caleb Talati - 29th May 2007 19:57 |
| In the "Penguin Guide to Punctuation"(1997), I read that the apostrophe is not needed for forming the dates of plurals in British English. However, according to the author, it is needed in American English. I find it easy writing both "1970s" and "1970's". |
| Daniel - 26th August 2009 23:17 |
| The apostrophe, to me, is simply wrong. It's nineties, not ninety's. We'd use an apostrophe to denote something belonging to 1990. The decade is simply a set of years, so it is "1990s". |
| Gus Payne - 13th November 2009 12:34 |
| This is fairly straight forward: No apostrophe. We say the "seventies" not the "seventy's". The mistake I keep making is "it's" (possessive) instead of "its". E.G: "it's leg" is incorrect, while "the dog's leg" is correct. What's so special about the word "it" for us to drop the possessive apostrophe? Okay I know there's ambiguity about mixing it up with "it is", but still... |
| Ken Masters - 6th December 2010 06:38 |
| There's no reason to use an apostrophe. It doesn't indicate a contraction, neither does it indicate a possessive. It's a plural, and there's no apostrophe in a plural, surely. |
| GB - 13th January 2011 14:24 |
| Apostrophes are used in two--and only two situations: Possessive nouns (not pronouns) and contractions. Any other use is nonsensical. |
| Gb - 13th January 2011 14:28 |
| W/R/T why "its" is special as a possessive without an apostrophe-- "Its" isn't special. It is one of several possessive PRONOUNS, none of which have apostrophes in English: Mine, yours, ours, theirs, its. IOW, "Its" is not an exception, it's the rule. |
| John - 30th October 2011 01:54 |
| Writing texts going back decades (centuries?) say to use 's when making numbers (8's), letters (A's, p's & q's), symbols (&'s), and "non-nouns" used as nouns (if's, and's, or but's). The 70's or the 1970's is still a number. It has nothing to do with "seventies" or "seventy's." You can write it however you want, but you can't say someone is wrong for writing 1970's. There's no Academie Anglais to make such decisions. As far as the "its" that someone mentioned earlier, that is a possessive form of the pronoun "it." You don't use an apostrophe for the same reason you don't use one with "hers," "ours," "theirs," or "yours": it's already possessive. |
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