[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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