Forming the Plurals of Numbers, Letters, and Abbreviations
Rule: The plurals for capital letters and numbers used as nouns are not formed with apostrophes.
Example: She consulted with three M.D.s. BUT
Example: She went to three M.D.s’ offices.
The apostrophe is needed here to show plural possessive.
Example: She learned her ABCs.
Example: the 1990s, not the 1990’s
Example: the ’90s or the mid-’70s, not the ’90’s or the mid-’70’s
Example: She learned her times tables for 6s and 7s.
Exception: Use apostrophes with capital letters and numbers when the meaning would be unclear otherwise.
Example: Please dot your I’s.
You don’t mean Is.
Example: Ted couldn’t distinguish between her 6’s and 0’s.
You don’t mean Os.
Two “Word Nerd” Holidays to Celebrate
Did you know that March 4 is National Grammar Day or that September 24 is National Punctuation Day? Yes, we English usage lovers have two days a year dedicated to our obsession. It’s not likely we’ll have parades for these holidays but let’s celebrate with a poem by Richard Lederer, Author of Anguished English:
The verbs in English are a fright.
How can we learn to read and write?
Today we speak, but first we spoke;
Some faucets leak, but never loke.
Today we write, but first we wrote;
We bite our tongues, but never bote.
Each day I teach, for years I taught,
And preachers preach, but never praught.
This tale I tell; this tale I told;
I smell the flowers, but never smold.
If knights still slay, as once they slew,
Then do we play, as once we plew?
If I still do as once I did,
Then do cows moo, as they once mid?
I love to win, and games I’ve won;
I seldom sin, and never son.
I hate to lose, and games I lost;
I didn’t choose, and never chost.
I love to sing, and songs I sang;
I fling a ball, but never flang.
I strike that ball, that ball I struck;
This poem I like, but never luck.
I take a break, a break I took;
I bake a cake, but never book.
I eat that cake, that cake I ate;
I beat an egg, but never bate.
I often swim, as I once swam;
I skim some milk, but never skam.
I fly a kite that I once flew;
I tie a knot, but never tew.
I see the truth, the truth I saw;
I flee from falsehood, never flaw.
I stand for truth, as I once stood;
I land a fish, but never lood.
About these verbs I sit and think.
These verbs don’t fit. They seem to wink
At me, who sat for years and thought
Of verbs that never fat or wrought.
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English In A Snap: 68 One-Minute English Usage Videos
View Jane’s 68 one-minute video lessons that are available FREE. Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and bosses), children, teachers, and friends.
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