What is the correct written form for acronyms or words that are made up of numbers? An example is an airplaine designated an A-26. I’d say the plural as “a-twenty-sixes” but how would I write it? I could add a lower case s, “A-26s” but that doesn’t look right and would be confusing for something that ends in an s in singular form like “A-26S.”
On a similar topic how about words like domain names and URLs (ha!) that have periods as part of the word. A trailing peroid may be correct but changes the word.
And a space before the period will prevent it from being part of the url. You do run a risk of the period wrapping to the next line, but that’s the best I can come up with.
Actually, apostrophes should be avoided unless there’s a real possibility of confusion: I probably resort to an apostrophe in one out of a hundred instances.
A-26s is perfectly adequate, is is MDs and MIDIs. Since -'s- , apostrophe-s, unequivocally denotes possession, the confusion generated by using it as a plural really should be avoided if at all possible.
Alphanumerics, acronyms, and abbreviations, when pluralized, should all end with 's. That’s what the sylebooks say, but a lot of people today are dropping the apostrophe, which is no big deal.
As far as any punctuation within the abbreviation, thats your call. Is it needed? Then use it. Otherwise, go with what looks good or whatever. Several years ago ATT was routinely spelled A.T.&T.
I’m with lissener on this one. Form plurals with only an “s,” and use the apostrophe only for possession. This allows you to use constructions like the following:
“We took delivery of four A-26s.”
“The A-26’s widget needs to be replaced.”
You can use the same rule for initials and acronyms, too.
My stlebooks specifically note that apostrophes are to be used ONLY to denote possession – never for plurals. So, despite the fact that it looks weird, A-26s is perfectly correct, as are the terms 1900s and 2000s.
I’m with the majority here. (It’s hard to argue with an angry flower.) Can you give an example of a stylebook that says to use an apostrophe when making a plural? I wonder if that was an acceptable, but now outdated practice.
The Angry Flower says nothing about making a plural of an abreviation or number. He doesn’t mention it, probably to avoid confusion. What stylebook are you using that says that you make plurals of abbreviations without an appostrohe? As a technical writer, I do this every day and have many style books on my shelf which all agree on this issue. CEO’s, GNP’s, A-26’s, etc.
The latest version of Strunk’s The Elements of Style (how disappointing, I swear it was in the old version.) doesn’t even mention this and I’m kinda in a hurry right now so I’ll leave it to you to look in other books.
