# Do any languages use punctuation to pluralize a word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339 "2013-08-15T19:41:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/1 "2013-08-15T19:41:12Z")
Thinking the about the unfortunate, all-too-frequent use of **'s** to pluralize a singular noun, I’m curious if there are any languages where punctuation is required to make a plural of a singular. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/2 "2013-08-15T19:42:57Z")
How would that function in conversation? ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/3 "2013-08-15T19:44:36Z")
Swedish sort of does in some situations, such as abbreviations. VD (CEO) is pluralized VD:ar. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/4 "2013-08-15T19:48:16Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > How would that function in conversation? The same way it does in English with possessives. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/5 "2013-08-15T19:52:18Z")
But in conversation, contextual clues tell you whether ‘bobs’ is plural or possessive. If a punctuation mark is all that denotes a plural noun from a singular, context may not be clear. If I have 3 wrenches in my toolkit and I say, “Hand me the wrench`”, what would tell you whether I mean wrench or wrenches? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/6 "2013-08-15T20:30:41Z")
“The nurse’s qualifications” - one nurse. “The nurses’ qualifications” - more than one nurse. That’s the only sort I can think of. In Malay and Indonesian, they used to write the numeral 2 at the end of a word to indicate the plural. This is because the only way they have to pluralize nouns is reduplication; e.g., house=_rumah_; houses=_rumah-rumah_. Which could be abbreviated as “rumah2.” But that’s obsolete now, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/7 "2013-08-15T20:35:40Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > How would that function in conversation? One could ask the same question about _any_ punctuation marks. If you ever study linguistics, you will note that it is really the study of _spoken_ language, with any consideration of _written_ language being pretty much incidental, if it’s mentioned at all. Written language developed much later than spoken, and only to record what people were already saying. This raises the question of how punctuation is supposed to work at all. If punctuation reflects what we actually say, why aren’t those symbols actual letters of the alphabet? In fact, we do speak with pauses and intonations to reflect nuances that aren’t spoken in words (like sentence boundaries, and question markers), whereas the alphabet mostly only works to record the words. Punctuation kinda-sorta reflects that, but not entirely. To some extent, then, written language isn’t quite the same language as the spoken language it supposedly represents. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/8 "2013-08-15T20:43:16Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > “The nurse’s qualifications” - one nurse. > “The nurses’ qualifications” - more than one nurse. That’s the only sort I can think of. That’s not really the same case - the apostrophe is not pluralizing the word, it’s making it a possessive. The underlying noun (nurses) is still plural without the apostrophe. It’s just that the rule for possessive varies depending on whether the noun is singular or plural. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/9 "2013-08-15T20:57:28Z")
> [@Running\_with\_Scissors](#): > > Thinking the about the unfortunate, all-too-frequent use of **'s** to pluralize a singular noun, I’m curious if there are any languages where punctuation is required to make a plural of a singular. Yes. In Dutch, the plural of _pizza_ is _pizza’s_. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/10 "2013-08-15T20:58:15Z")
> [@Running\_with\_Scissors](#): > > Thinking the about the unfortunate, all-too-frequent use of **'s** to pluralize a singular noun, I’m curious if there are any languages where punctuation is required to make a plural of a singular. English, in some usage books. 's needed after a letter or number: b’s, 22’s, etc. I know that the preferred usage is to omit the apostrophe, but in some cases, to avoid confusion, it is recommended. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/11 "2013-08-16T02:35:11Z")
> [@barbitu8](#): > > English, in some usage books. 's needed after a letter or number: b’s, 22’s, etc. I know that the preferred usage is to omit the apostrophe, but in some cases, to avoid confusion, it is recommended. But it’s not the ’ that makes these plural, it’s the s. (See previous posts in this thread.) Some languages have had alphabets developed for them which use marks we think of as “punctuation” to represent “letters.” For example, the glottal stop in Yucatec Maya is written like an English apostrophe – both as a “letter” by itself (ka’an KAH-ahn sky vs. kaan KAHN snake), or in combination with another letter to make it a plosive – a different letter (k’aan squirrel – I didn’t try to write it phonetically, as the first consonant doesn’t exist in English). Also various Khoi-San languages now have what look like English “punctuation” to represent various click consonants (!, etc.). It’s possible that one of these letters in one of these languages represents a plural prefix or suffix in certain contexts. If so, that might satisfy the OP – but it would just LOOK (to us) like “punctuation.” It really isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/12 "2013-08-16T03:22:29Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Yes. In Dutch, the plural of _pizza_ is _pizza’s_. (Natives feel free to correct me), Norwegian, and possibly other Scandinavian languages, it seems to me to be the opposite. Plural adds an “s” with no apostrophe. The Netherlands might drive me to grocer’s apostrophe rage. Italian uses miniature upside-down exclamation marks to pluralize masculine nouns… cannolo –\> cannoli ; panino –\> panini …? I am so sorry… ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/13 "2013-08-16T04:53:52Z")
Written Thai has a feature related to OP’s question: a duplication marker. For example: ร้อย = /roi/ = hundred ร้อยๆ = /roi roi/ = hundreds or จริง = /jing/ = true จริงๆ = /jing jing/ = very true จริงๆๆ = /jing jing jing/ ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/14 "2013-08-16T04:56:40Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > (Natives feel free to correct me), Norwegian, and possibly other Scandinavian languages, it seems to me to be the opposite. Plural adds an “s” with no apostrophe. The Netherlands might drive me to grocer’s apostrophe rage. In Dutch, most nouns pluralize in -en; in some cases they take an -s. The -'s suffix is only for a limited subset of nouns which meet a certain criterion, namely that they end in a ‘long’[sup]1)[/sup] vowel. The apostrophe does not indicate the plural, but the pronunciation of the preceding ‘long’ vowel. The ‘long’ vowel needs to be preserved, but if you add a consonant to that open syllable, you close it, and that means the vowel in that syllable has to be pronounced ‘short’. To remedy this, Dutch orthography has two solutions. One is to add an apostrophe, like in pizza’s. This is used only in noun pluralization. In other cases, you double the vowel to indicate length. So for instance, when you add a diminutive suffix to a noun like ‘pizza’, you get ‘pizzaatje’ (small pizza), not \*pizza’tje. Nouns ending in short vowels (such as pizzaatje, for instance) or in a specific set of consonant endings (such as -em, -el, -er) pluralize taking an -s without the apostrophe. So: pizzaatjes, bezems, regels, bevers. [sup]1)[/sup] We call these vowels ‘short’ and ‘long’ but they’re actually completely different sounds, rather than the same sounds pronounced for different lengths of time. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/15 "2013-08-16T05:23:44Z")
> [@Running\_with\_Scissors](#): > > That’s not really the same case - the apostrophe is not pluralizing the word, it’s making it a possessive. The underlying noun (nurses) is still plural without the apostrophe. It’s just that the rule for possessive varies depending on whether the noun is singular or plural. I’m not comparing the possessive with the base form. I’m comparing the two possessive forms, so that the position of the apostrophe is the only thing that distinguishes the singular possessive from the plural possessive. That’s why I think this example corresponds to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/16 "2013-08-16T09:44:55Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > How would that function in conversation? > [@Senegoid](#): > > One could ask the same question about _any_ punctuation marks. Victor Borge could answer this question. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-use-punctuation-to-pluralize-a-word/666339/17 "2013-08-16T10:25:08Z")
> [@Running\_with\_Scissors](#): > > Thinking the about the unfortunate, all-too-frequent use of **'s** to pluralize a singular noun The apostrophe error grates on me less than others since I realized it can aid clarity in certain situations. In English, if you follow a word with the possessive s then the s is usually (always?) pronounced with a z sound. It is similar when pluralizing a word, but in the written form there is ambiguity here: If I invented a new singular noun “tacos” the most obvious pronunciation is “tak-oss”, whereas the plural of taco is [taco] + z sound. So, using an apostrophe for the plural of nouns that have a vowel at the end, while grammatically incorrect, can make the pronunciation less ambiguous. I think this is the reason that this particular error is so common. I’m not trying to convince anyone to write this way (I don’t), just trying to say why I don’t shake my fist at everyone that makes this error.