DVDs, PCs, etc.

Hello,
I've been wondering about that for years.
Usually, we don't use capital letters here:
My pc is very new.
There won't be a new dvd version of Terminator.

However, what about plural?
My friend has two pcs.
I own more than 10 dvds.

It looks a bit strange.
I would either use PCs/DVDs or pc's/dvd's, although I really dislike the latter.
In German we always use capital letters, like "PCs" or "DVDs", but English is not German ;-)

Cheers!

Nightmare85 said:

Hello,
I've been wondering about that for years.
Usually, we don't use capital letters here:
My pc is very new.
There won't be a new dvd version of Terminator.

However, what about plural?
My friend has two pcs.
I own more than 10 dvds.

It looks a bit strange.
I would either use PCs/DVDs or pc's/dvd's, although I really dislike the latter.
In German we always use capital letters, like "PCs" or "DVDs", but English is not German ;-)

Cheers!

Click to expand...

With initials/acronyms, we always use capitals, regardless of whether it's singular or plural.

My PC is very new.
I have Terminator on DVD.
I really must sell some of my CDs.

Thanks!

Oh yes, I forgot this although I used many initials/acronyms in my a/an thread

Cheers!

emsr2d2 said:

With initials/acronyms, we always use capitals, regardless of whether it's singular or plural.

Click to expand...

That's not quite true, and it does present a difficulty.
Some initialisms are written in small letters, for example:
many computer terms - edu, com, html, etc.
many scientific terms - km, mpg, kg.
grammatical terms - e.g., etc.

So, the question remains: Do we say, "You've used too many 'etc.', 'etcs', 'etc's' ... "? Pluralising an upper case initialism simply requires an 's', but adding an 's' to a lower case term could simply extend it by one letter, and that's why some people still use an apostrophe for such terms.

Raymott said:

That's not quite true, and it does present a difficulty.
Some initialisms are written in small letters, for example:
many computer terms - edu, com, html, etc.
many scientific terms - km, mpg, kg.
grammatical terms - e.g., etc.

So, the question remains: Do we say, "You've used too many 'etc.', 'etcs', 'etc's' ... "? Pluralising an upper case initialism simply requires an 's', but adding an 's' to a lower case term could simply extend it by one letter, and that's why some people still use an apostrophe for such terms.

Click to expand...

Good points, though I would like to point out that I would call things like km, mpg, kg etc abbreviations, and wouldn't have included them in what I call initials and acronyms.

Regarding the km, kg:
Why should we add an s at all?
Its weight is 20 kg.
London is 1.094 km away from Berlin.
I would never add an s (KGs, kgs, kg's :down: - in my opinion).

Cheers!

Nightmare85 said:

Regarding the km, kg:
Why should we add an s at all?
Its weight is 20 kg.
London is 1.094 km away from Berlin.
I would never add an s (KGs, kgs, kg's :down: - in my opinion).

Cheers!

Click to expand...

You wouldn't for those terms. That's why I gave 'etcs' as an example.

Raymott said:

That's not quite true, and it does present a difficulty.
Some initialisms are written in small letters, for example:
many computer terms - edu, com, html, etc.
many scientific terms - km, mpg, kg.
grammatical terms - e.g., etc.

So, the question remains: Do we say, "You've used too many 'etc.', 'etcs', 'etc's' ... "? Pluralising an upper case initialism simply requires an 's', but adding an 's' to a lower case term could simply extend it by one letter, and that's why some people still use an apostrophe for such terms.

Click to expand...

To add to the list:

anacronyms (which I've just learnt means acronyms assimilated into the language such that people are generally no longer aware of what the initial letters stand for) - scuba, radar, laser

'nimby'/'nimbyism' and 'dinky', which often appear without any capitalised letters (at least in BrEng), could perhaps be added to that list even though people are still generally aware of what they stand for.

Also, 'asap' is an abbreviation which I often see in lower case these days even though people rarely pronounce it as the acronymic 'ass-ap'.

bertietheblue said:

To add to the list:

anacronyms (which I've just learnt means acronyms assimilated into the language such that people are generally no longer aware of what the initial letters stand for) - scuba, radar, laser

'nimby'/'nimbyism' and 'dinky', which often appear without any capitalised letters (at least in BrEng), could perhaps be added to that list even though people are still generally aware of what they stand for.

Also, 'asap' is an abbreviation which I often see in lower case these days even though people rarely pronounce it as the acronymic 'ass-ap'.

Click to expand...

The first time I heard "asap" pronounced "ay-sap" I was baffled. I had always heard, and said, "ay-ess-ay-pee", and yet I also write it in lower case!

I've always rather liked "nimby" and "dinky" (and yes, I know what they stand for!)

emsr2d2 said:

The first time I heard "asap" pronounced "ay-sap"

Click to expand...

Sorry, yes, I should have said 'acronymic ay-sap'.

Nightmare85 said:

Regarding the km, kg:
I would never add an s (KGs, kgs, kg's :down: - in my opinion).
Cheers!

Click to expand...

There's no 'KG' or 'KGS'.

Its weight is 3 kg. (no capital letter for kg, km, mg, pg etc)
Its weight is 3 kilograms.

Althrough many use capital letters here, it's not right.

What's the temperature now? 300 K (Kelvin).

:up: