[sdiy] OT: grammar, spelling and communication
Andrew Wyld
andrewwyld at hotmail.com
Sat May 28 02:25:26 CEST 2005
Just to be annoying:
> Apostrophes ARE NOT used when a word is pluralized (showing that there is
more than one of something). For example:
> More than one LED are LEDs.
> More than one CD are CDs.
> More than one transistor are transistors.
The main exception to this is single letters: "there are three S's in
'sussurated'" is very hard to read without the apostrophe, and other single
letters are allowed it for continuity reasons. Decades may also have an
apostrophe: "since the 30's, the Cuyahoga river has caught on fire on three
occasions." There are a couple of other situations where apostrophes are
permitted, but it does depend on whose style manual you read. In the case
of years I think it looks better to write "thirties", anyway (like Kurt
Vonnegut's solution to the problem of "ain't I?" vs. "aren't I?" vs. "am'nt
I?" -- namely, "am I not?" -- it sacrifices brevity to elegance).
Conclusion of the foregoing.
Andrew
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