Poll: Do you use an apostrophe in plural acronyms and initialisms?

Comments:

Bridget - 7th November 2003 22:47

Oh no! The evil apostrophe rears its evil head again! The apostrophe indicates possession. Ironically, it has now possesses those who incorrectly use it to make the plural. We, the literate, understand that adding an s to a word makes it plural!

Joan - 22nd November 2003 00:27

How would you make a letter plural? Mind your ps and qs. Mind your p's and q's. Mind your Ps and Qs.

willbut - 28th November 2003 23:51

Ps and Qs

weisen - 16th February 2004 06:28

Use of apostrophes in order to form the plural of certain non-words is quite normal, accepted, and cited in style manuals. This is a judgment call for the writer, but there are several style manuals available on-line (e.g. the Hunter College manual) that indicate that apostrophes can be used to form plurals in unusual cases where just adding an "s" makes the word unrecognizable: e.g. "mind your p's and q's"

Dmitry - 4th April 2007 11:41

Personally, I would either use Ps and Qs or "p"s and "q"s. The apostrophe is not for making something plural. In most cases, adding the letter "s" on the end of the word is.

mgrace - 17th August 2007 20:05

What about acronyms where the noun to be pluralized is not the last word? For example, [and sorry for the healthcare -specific reference] TOB stands for Type of Bill. To pluralize this you really are talking about Types of Bill (bill types). So there would be no s or 's at all...

m.jeffree - 23rd November 2007 14:41

surely the apostrophe is simply substituted for the missing letters between D and s i.e. "isk" and has nothing to do with possession, just as the apostrophe in it's represents the missing "i" in "it is" and does not indicate the plural of it?

David L - 14th January 2008 20:12

I'm afraid explaining away the apostrophe to make a word plural doesn't hold up, even in the case of representing the missing letters in CDs. If it were "CD's" and the apostrophe stood for the "isc" in Disc, then wouldn't it follow that another apostrophe would be needed for "ompact" in Compact? C'D's would be just plain ridiculous. I think you do whatever improves readability, i.e. CDs and p's and q's.

Tracy - 26th January 2008 02:57

According to most style guides, pluralizing initialisms and acronyms with an apostrophe is acceptable though not widely used. Individual lower case letters (such as "p's and q's") are usually formed by adding the apostrophe, but capital letters use just the s.

john - 15th April 2008 16:26

This is a case where common usage trumps any kind of dictated rule. Do you go to an Oakland As game or do you go to an Oakland A's game? This si how language evolves.

Benji - 27th May 2008 01:50

Well, I say CDs and Oakland As, but when specifically referring to a letter, I use an apostrophe. Xs and Os doesn't look right. X's and O's is slightly clearer, and whether that's common usage or not, I prefer it. Another example: I get A's and B's in school. Not As and Bs.

Earl - 14th June 2008 03:56

An apostrophe is appropriate in this instance. Also in p's and q's. It is absolutely used to denote possession, but that's not its only use. It can also be used to denote something missing (O'er there, wasn't, etc.) In this case it's showing some missing letters.

James S - 27th August 2008 14:01

The noun here is not CD, it is Compact Disc. I firmly believe that an apostrophe should be used here to indicate the absence of the isc in Discs (I am not using inverted commas for clarity). David L's suggestion that with my logic the C for Compact would need an apostrophe is absurd for what I hope are obvious reasons. The moment we are picking and choosing which letters we are including from a word, we need an apostrophe to indicate the missing ones. (Do not=Don't, Department=Dep't, Sergeant=Serg't). This is basic English. The whole confusion arises from people's misconception that apostrophes are solely used to indicate possession. The widespread misuse of apostrophes to pluralise annoys us all so much that I feel many overlook that possibly, in the case of CD's, DVD's etc. they may actually be right even if they are blissfully unaware of why.

Gerry - 29th August 2008 18:14

I work in tax in the UK.We have a whole host of forms that need to be filled in, and they all have names. For example, there is a form P11d. How do you pluralise it? P11ds makes it look like the "s" is part of the name; and so surely only P11d's makes sense. Well, if I'm going to use an apostrophe is some circumstances for plurals, I'm going to be consistent. Whenever I'm pluralising initials, acronyms, numbers etc, I'll use an apostrophe.

John W - 4th September 2008 14:01

Surely no-one would write, "How many as are there in abracadabra?" This doesn't give the right sense at all. The correct sense is given by "How many a's are there in abracadabra". When it comes to that, the answer ("There are five as") also is a bit nonsensical without an apostrophe.

Al - 25th September 2008 04:17

I would write, "How many "a"s are there in abracadabra." with the usage of the quotation marks indicating the intent to use the subject letter as a specific noun (the name of the character of the alphabet) instead of as normal usage. While I believe the use of an apostrophe to show the plural of CD to be incorrect, I wouldn't fret about it as common usage always trumps old rules in language.

Kathy L. - 26th September 2008 23:28

Common usage does not necessarily result in excellence, even though certain people feel that it "trumps old rules in language." Adding an apostrophe to form plurals of initials, acronyms, and numbers is for the purpose of clarity and ease in reading the text. I will continue to add an apostrophe because I strive for excellence.

annel - 27th September 2008 14:01

I have a real dilemma - I oversee the quality of school reports going out to parents - teachers use acronyms so commonly - SATs GCSEs BTECs - their reports are an absolute mismatch of using and not using the apostrophe. For consistency I remove all the apostrophes before the reports go home - but feel like I am fighting a losing battle - and may be should just give up?

Nick D - 18th January 2009 22:05

When we write about a letter of the alphabet, don't we normally capitalize the letter? You don't write "the letter a", but "the letter A". This would help avoid some of the confusion and improve readability, whether you use apostrophes or not when pluralizing. But then what of the expression "Be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's"? The letter I in this case has to be lowercase, because capital I of course has no dot! In this case, it's clear that an apostrophe (or perhaps quotation marks) must be used, so as to avoid confusion with the word "is". I don't like using apostrophes to pluralize acronyms when it can be avoided. They always hit me like a speedbump when I'm reading, because I do generally associate them with posession or contractions. (And acronyms are NOT contractions - I'm with David L on this one!) But there are times when I think it is necessary to use an apostrophy for clarity's sake - for example, when it is a one-letter acronym (e.g., the Oakland A's), an acronym with mixed upper- and lower-case letters (as in Gerry's P11d's, below), or a letter of the alphabet.

Justin - 25th July 2009 01:27

The idea that the apostrophe that some might use in acronyms (a matter of choice, as correctly stated earlier) to stand in for the missing letters "isc" from the word Disc when used "CD's" is ridiculous. The apostrophe is used to form a contraction. The possessive "apostrophe s," as in "Joe's house," evolved from the earlier, formal "Joe his house." Sounds wierd, I know, but it's true. So "Joe's" is truly a contraction of "Joe his." This is the case for other possessives as well. The abbreviation of words (Ass't for Assistant) is informal and generally not required. An abbreviation must first be defined in writing. For example, the correct abbreviation for Sergeant (Sgt) will be used hereafter. I don't need an apostrophe to stand in for the missing letters since I've defined the meaning of the abbreviation. See? Check out the following link for additonal information. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ap ostrophes1.html

Kevin - 15th October 2009 01:51

@James S: The apostrophe in CD's doesn't "replace" anything. It's only there to visually separate the "s" from the acronym—to show the reader that the "s" isn't part of it. But since acronyms are capitalized and the "s" is not, I don't personally use the apostrophe. But I do agree with other posters that it's not only appropriate, but necessary, in certain instances (X's and O's, for example). I use it only when its absence would create confusion.

Statuess - 1st November 2009 22:41

Ugh! Absolutely do not use an apostrophe in those circumstances! I'm surrpised that no-one else has mentioned what I do if it will look awkward or ambiguous: encase the word/letter in single quotation marks ('X's). It's simple, effectively separates the single, but without making it confusing!

Tim - 8th December 2009 05:26

The best way to pluralize any abbreviation would be to list the type of equipment as a word. For instance, TPS reports, BMW M330 cars, 7.62X39MM Kalashnikov rifles, [XXXX] network cards, [model] [company] computers, [race I don't like] people. The apostrophe does not add any real meaning to a plural.

Beth - 29th January 2010 16:47

@Statuess: I agree completely. I offset confusing letters in a single quotation. It's visually appealing, doesn't break any grammar rules, and is easy to read/understand what the author is trying to convey.

Tim Barclay - 10th February 2010 17:36

I think I agree with the majority of people here who generally recoil in horror to see an apostrophe used in any plural. Having said that, though, I'm starting to come around to the argument that there are some scenarios where the use of an apostrophe to pluralise a single letter really does improve clarity. Imagine, for example, that there were a chain of trendy restaurants called i and that you wanted to comment on the fact that there were a lot of them in your town. It would clearly be confusing to write, "there are many is in this town". I also think it would be inconsistent to say, "there are many 'i's in this town," because you would not use inverted commas in an equivalent situation ("there are many 'Burger King's"). Therefore, in this case, I would grudgingly admit that an apostrophe would be the clearest option: "there are many i's in this town."

alex germain's - 25th April 2010 22:54

what about situations in which one is quoting within a sentence necessitating the use of an apostrophe? for example, "the same set of critical faculties are called into use with 'Bucketrider's' work 'L'evenement'." does the inverted comma after the apostrophe s go before or after or not at all?!

Ann McReynolds - 26th April 2010 23:45

More than 50 years ago, I was taught to use an apostrophe after acronyms and numbers and years. It made no sense to me at the time, although I faithfully adhered to "the rule" until a few years ago, when I missed seeing the apostrophe in the NYT, WSJ, and other reliable places. My instincts have been vindicated!

blake lowey - 27th May 2010 23:16

Oakland A's. The apostrophe is for the truncation of Athletics.

Trolley6969 - 24th September 2010 13:53

There is a difference between an abbreviated word and an acronym which some posters seem to be missing. In Oakland A's, the A is not a truncation of Athletics it is a single letter acronym (although I feel the sue of the apostrophe in this case is correct to improve clarity). CD is an acronym for Compact Discs so the posters who feel it is correct to use an apostrophe to replace the missing "iscs" are wrong - the letters are not missing as it is not an abbreviation.

a - 13th October 2010 10:46

I would write peas and queues

Sharry - 23rd October 2010 06:46

I would say dot your eyes and teas :)

Clayton - 11th November 2010 17:45

As with the Oakland A's where the apostrophe truncates "Athletics," in P's and Q's, the apostrophe truncates 'pints' and 'quarts.' At school I get As and Bs because there is nothing to truncate. I have two CDs because you wouldn't truncate disc but not compact. It's an acronym, which the capitalization suggests. No need for an apostrophe here.

TTB - 1st December 2010 14:39

I have been wondering about this one for a while.. I have always thought that apostrophes DO show possession and that the use of an apostrophe in plural acronyms is NOT correct. I am coming to the conclusion that this whole debate is subjective like so many other English rules. Fish/Fishes Deer/Deers.. really? Answer me this please. As a teacher we have a Behavior Modification Room in our building for students who are not behaving. This room is is abbreviated as BMR. When there is more than one student who receive this punishment is it called BMR or BMR's ... You probably know what I choose.

L'zR'ss' - 27th December 2010 10:01

The very fact that it's "open for voting" shows that it's not a finally resolved issue. I've seen both used by respectable sources (whose English can't be faulted otherwise). Language is a living entity and changes over time. Apostrophes have been used for contractions and deletions, not only possession, and some have been dropped again. Think of the cello. It's traditionally a 'cello, contracted from violoncello. Or the bus: It used to be a 'bus, from omnibus. The word "bus" itself was meaningless; "us" is the Latin ending of the word meaning "all of us, everybody". "Sol luced omnibus" - the sun shines for everybody. Ca!

Randi Hill - 28th January 2011 18:39

the 's is used to show possessive intent. Not using the apostrophe indicates plural. In this day and age we all need to use our language cautiously, particularly in contracts and formal communications.

jwsquared - 1st March 2011 20:39

apostrophe for initialisms, but not for acronyms CD's but PADDs (petroleum area defense districts).

Dan t - 26th March 2011 09:55

If the apostrophe in "CD's" is for an abbreviation then we should be using it for the singular as well, and say " CD' " instead of " CD " and that just doesn't make sense and it is in the dictionary without an apostrophe so therefore, saying "CD's" is completely illogical. I would also take note that an acronym is different to an abbreviation.

LA - 18th April 2011 23:17

I’m 60 and learned in grade school to always add an apostrophe in plural acronyms, and first noticed it being widely dropped in Time magazine articles in the 1980’s. The Philadelphia Athletics (now in Oakland), who began in 1901, understood this usage for they also called themselves the A’s not the As. I’m very surprised by the resistance to using the apostrophe in this manner and surmise that most others commenting on this must be younger than I.

Ben - 3rd May 2011 17:26

I am definitely in the younger crowd (under 30, though not for much longer) and absolutely do use apostrophes in my initialisms. We ask punctuation marks to serve multiple purposes often, and the apostrophe is no different. Yes, it is for possessives ending in "S" excluding the case of "its." We also use it for truncations, contractions, etc. So those who are claiming it is only possessive are missing a sizable chunk of the picture. I had always been taught that while it is acceptable to omit the apostrophe when pluralizing an acronym or initialism, the preferred, formal method is to include it. Its inclusion isn't to indicate anything is missing, truncated, what have you, but simply to indicate that the "S" is not a part of the initialism/acronym.

Adam - 25th May 2011 09:24

Whilst this is clearly an emotive topic of conversation, and one that causes tempers to rise in my office, some posters on here are quite clearly correct (eg. L'zR'ss', Randi Hill and Dan t). Unfortuantely, I'm afraid, the rest just go to prove the deficiency in language skills demonstrated by native (and or otherwise fluent) English speakers/writers. The acronym for Compact Disc is CD; the plural of Compact Disc is... Compact Discs. Therefore, the plural of the acronym is CDs. Regarding the Oakland Athletics "calling themselves the A's and not the As" (LA, 2011), well this is obvious too when you give it some thought. The Athletics are belonging to Oakland and, therefore, the use of the apostrophe is justified and indeed correct as it is being used in its possessive context. Typically, it is sufficient to add an 's' to denote a plural (with obvious exceptions such as fishes, leaves etc.) and the use of the apostrophe should be restricted to denote possession and truncations (i.e. don't). Of course, rather than being lazy, we could always type/write our abbreviations and acronymns in full to avoid the liberal and confusing use of punctuation; just a thought. :)

Michael Voolich - 3rd June 2011 16:09

While there are many basic common "rules" of English grammar that dictate how we write what we say, the most fundamental rule that trumps all other rules is that what we write must make sense. Specifically that means that when you see something in written form, you should be able to say correctly what you read. If this means using an apostrophe to signify a plural with an acronym, the do it. Slavishly following some older grammarian's rules for the sake of "correctness" is utter folly, as many of the examples given in the various comment's show. English has more words and MORE EXCEPTIONS than any other language.

RobK - 13th June 2011 14:03

Not using an apostrophe looks odd to me. Plenty of examples have been given where it should be used, other than possessive and contractions. So, I feel that it is a personal choice, as long as the meaning remains clear. In English, every rule is made to be broken.

Bob - 20th June 2011 21:43

For those arguing that the apostrophe is correct in CD's because it is replacing the missing "isc" do you also type CD' for the singular form? Of course, the contraction argument completely disregards the fact that CD is an initialism (acronym of initial letters) and not a contraction.

M - 22nd August 2011 10:40

I do get annoyed when people say "all that matters is that it makes sense". We all have to understand what is being written and it's unhelpful if the punctuation makes sense to some and not to all. On another note, I work with graduate employers and have been told numerous times that initial applications that have errors in spelling and/or grammar are immediately discarded. Yes, language is a living thing, but it is still important that people get it right. Like legislation, grammar is defined and there is a "right" and "wrong". Rules are rules, and hopefully in most cases, logic and common sense prevail. So, I'm firmly in the "CDs" camp. Regarding the forms mentioned earlier, using either single quotation marks or formatting (bold/italics) could maintain clarity and stick to the rules.

P - 24th September 2011 11:07

So I presume that those of you who accept "Oakland A's" would write that "the Oakland A's' general manager is Billy Beane"? I can't abide that.

mb - 29th September 2011 22:13

What about FAQs or FAQ's it's both an acronym and an initiaism.

malcolm - 15th October 2011 18:11

What about using quotation marks in reference to a letter of the alphabet? For example when writing the following sentence: I enjoy viewing my high school transcript, even if it is composed primarily of "F"s! Is the s included in the marks or not?

lj - 2nd December 2011 12:31

Comment's, Michael? You do like apostrophes

damien - 30th December 2011 02:47

What about numbers? For example, is it the 80s/80's or, more controversially, the '80's or even the '80s?

John H - 25th January 2012 11:25

Using the Oakland A's as an example is misleading. This is a proper name and as such is not covered by the rules of grammar. Oakland can name their team what they want. Back to the topic: - the difference between "Compact Disc" and "Compact Discs" is the letter ‘s’. So if you already accept that "CD" is a valid initialism to represent "Compact Disc", then adding "s" must give you the plural form. In this case there are no missing letters, because you already accepted that the "isc" of “Disc” is included in the initialism. So no apostrophe is needed, because there is no contraction. I was amused by the chap who wrote in to defend the use of the apostrophe in this case, and referred in his post to the "1980's". Presumably the apostrophe is needed in this case because it's a contraction of "1980ies"? Ridiculous. Apostrophes are not used for constructing plurals; they are used for possessives and contractions. Initialisms, acronyms and the like are NOT contractions so they do not need an apostrophe. On the odd occasion when following this rule makes the text look clumsy, write the sentence a different way. I work in the technical industry and we use a lot of three-letter acronyms (TLAs). Almost all my colleagues use an apostrophe to pluralise these terms. So I know I hold the minority view. ;-)

polarbear - 2nd February 2012 15:57

The Oakland Athletics are commonly referred to as the A's. The apostrophe is appropriate because this is a contraction.

Kat - 8th February 2012 17:42

Using the approstrophe to pluralize may be accepted, but it makes it difficult to then indicate possessive. "The CD's gleam is enticing".