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Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 01:45 PM
so, what's the proper way to pluralize CD and/or DVD? CDs just looks wrong, and CD's indicates possession, and one really doesn't want to have to write out compact discs every time, and...

looking for the vinyl answer...

Posted By: maverick Re: acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 02:21 PM
> CDs just looks wrong

Not to my eye, eta.

One cm, two cms is a common pattern of pluralisation here, and the uppper case makes no odds to me. The possessive, wrongly applied, on the other hand... [/grinding teeth]

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 02:30 PM
hmm. ok. I can try CDs, and see if I'll get used to it.

thanks!

Posted By: tsuwm Re: acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 02:34 PM
I'm with mav (although quite far removed). I also prefer adding lowercase s to uppercase acronyms*, indicating the s is not inherently part thereof.

*wwftds being a notable exception <g>

Posted By: Sparteye Re: acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 02:44 PM
What mav and tsuwm said. [/putting-in-vote-after-the-election-is-already-over emoticon]

Posted By: Capfka Re: acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 04:53 PM
*wwftds being a notable exception <g>

Well, tsuwm, you could try wwftdS on for size, I suppose ...

Posted By: dxb Re: acronymic plurals - 02/22/05 05:01 PM
That's a capital idea!

Posted By: TEd Remington That's a capital idea! - 02/22/05 06:31 PM
Thre's no capital I in dea.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: That's a capital idea! - 02/22/05 06:40 PM
heh.. next you'll be telling us there's no I in ego.

Posted By: Capfka Re: That's a capital idea! - 02/22/05 06:52 PM
Trust you to sum it up!

Posted By: TEd Remington sum it up - 02/22/05 07:59 PM
I SAW that!

Posted By: Jackie Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 12:43 AM
Dag nab it, if we can use it for lower-case plurals, I don't see why it won't work for acronyms too:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html

Posted By: Father Steve Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 01:24 AM
Yabbut, the Apostrophe Protection Society opposes the use of apostrophes to denote the plurals of acronyms ... something for which I have been previously chastised on this board.

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/


Posted By: Jackie Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 01:53 AM
Oh, I love those guys! But I still say that CDs, for ex., just looks wrong; maybe it's like when you learn a piece of music incorrectly: thereafter, the correct version sounds wrong to you. (Well, me, anyway.) I "learned" CD's, so...

Posted By: tsuwm Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 02:28 AM
>I "learned" CD's..

you learned CD's what?

Posted By: Dgeigh Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 02:57 AM
Trust you to sum it up!

Oh, Capfka, your funni-es
are the droll-est!


Posted By: wsieber Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 07:07 AM
Hey, an unpicked nit!
One cm, two cms is a common pattern of pluralisation here -
In case this cm stands for centimetre, then the pluralization might be common, at least in areas recently converted to the metric system. It is nevertheless wrong: According to the SI norms, abbreviated units of measure are never pluralized.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 07:11 AM
Offhand, the only time I've seen apostrophes used for plurals is with letters and numbers as in "Mind your p's and q's," "Cross your t's and dot your i's," and "Cross out all 2's in the first row." CDs looks preferable to me as does cds, but because of the p's and q's, I can see how CD's came to be written. Again, it's just a matter of training your eye for whatever convention is generally accepted.

Posted By: Capfka Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 10:14 AM
I think that you get apostrophes used in situations like p's and q's simply because ps and qs can mean other things, and we English speakers don't like to have to work out what a word means from the context. CDs or DVDs are self-explanatory since there are not two potential meanings.

This is just an opinion!

Posted By: Capfka Re: acronymic plurals - 02/23/05 11:11 AM
Oh, Capfka, your funni-es
are the droll-est!


Qualis artifices faeces tauri sumus!





Posted By: TEd Remington funni-es - 02/23/05 11:52 AM
Summus would even go as far as Estes Park, Colorado to try and find a pun using sunt.

Posted By: Jackie Re: funni-es - 02/24/05 05:41 PM
Don't forget Vincent's psychoanalyst nephew --------------------- E Gogh. (Thanks, wow.)


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