| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 480.1 | One individual's opinion | DELNI::CANTOR | Dave C. | Tue Feb 16 1988 13:34 | 50 |
| These are the rules I use:
Apostrophes for indicating plural
o Add "'s" to indicate the plural of
o symbols and letters used to represent themselves
e.g. There are 2 2's in this sentence.
There are no $'s and no %'s in the previous sentence.
There are six e's in the first sentence.
o acronyms when used to refer to the acronym itself, rather
than the object named by the acronym
e.g. A special interest group (SIG) is a committee
of people from organizations such as DECUS.
There are two SIGs for computer security and
three SIGs for spelling reform.
The previous sentence contains two SIG's.
o A common noun, normally used to refer to something other
than itself, never takes an apostrophe to form a plural.
Apostrophes for indicating possession
o Add "'s" to form the singular possessive of all nouns.
o Add just an apostrophe to form the possessive of plural nouns
ending in -s and -x (and some people include -z, too).
o Add "'s" to form the possessive of plural nouns ending in
other letters.
Apostrophes for forming contractions
o Use an apostrophe to represent each separate group of letters
omitted in contractions of words and phrases.
e.g. would not wouldn't
would not have wouldn't've
I would not have I'dn't've
Do not use apostrophes
o to form the plural of common nouns
o to from the singular, present, third person form of
a verb
Dave C.
|
| 480.2 | ... and | ZFC::DERAMO | Daniel V. D'Eramo, AITG, DTN 291-8026 | Tue Feb 16 1988 18:24 | 3 |
| Another rule is that possessive pronouns never use an apostrophe.
Dan
|
| 480.3 | Singularly plural names | IOSG::CARLIN | Just discovered /personal=... | Wed Feb 17 1988 23:53 | 9 |
| Even though it is covered by the rules in .1 the case that always
bothers me is
Paul Simons's cat (belonging to Paul Simons)
because it seems terribly pedantic pronouncing it that way.
Dick
|
| 480.4 | try... | DELNI::SILK | serving time | Thu Feb 18 1988 04:05 | 3 |
| How about Paul Simons' cat?
Nina
|
| 480.5 | Look around, there's more ... | CLARID::PETERS | E Unibus Plurum | Thu Feb 18 1988 13:43 | 7 |
| These answers are all far too serious. For a lighter treatment of the same
subject read 438.*
Steve
P.S. I prefer Dave Barry's explanation (438.5)
|
| 480.6 | | ERIS::CALLAS | I've lost my faith in nihilism. | Wed Feb 24 1988 23:38 | 6 |
| re.3,.4:
You can find a reference to support either spelling. Whichever one you
use, you pronounce it the same way -- whatever sounds best.
Jon
|
| 480.7 | more on the apostrophe | REGENT::EPSTEIN | Bruce Epstein | Fri Feb 26 1988 22:24 | 9 |
| Also, contrary to most usage, you do not add an apostrophe to form
the plural of a proper noun. That is, John and Mary Smith are the
Smiths, not the Smith's.
The worst placement of an apostrophe I've seen (it may be in this
conference already) appeared in a plural ending in "ies", for instance,
bunnies, which was printed as bunnie's.
Bruce
|