# the" ---s's" issue **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 18, 1999, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815 "1999-08-18T04:53:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815/21 "1999-08-19T20:29:00Z")
uh, I meant _initialisms_! * * * “non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem” ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 1999, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815/22 "1999-08-23T04:45:00Z")
Despite what Strunk says, if you’re going to add an apostrophe-ess to words ending in ess (e.g., Jones becomes Jones’s) then do the same for _Jesus_ (making it _Jesus’s_). The practice of **pronouncing** _Jesus’_ as _GEE-sus_ is as archaic as using _thee_ and _thy_. Sure, Billy Graham and Maya Angelou might do it in their grand and elouquent sermons and speeches, but that’s not how the new generation pronounces the possessive of _Jesus_. In common parlance, people say _GEE-suh-sez_, and thus, it should be written _Jesus’s_. There. That’s my pet peeve of the day. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 1999, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815/23 "1999-08-23T06:22:00Z")
I agree with Stark’s comment on Pluto’s inquiry. If you use an 's to show the plural of an acronym, then how do you show the possesive of a single example of the acronym? For example, “The M.P.'s vote.” If the 's means more than one M.P., then “vote” is a verb, meaning that more than one M.P. is voting. But if 's means a singular possessive, then it is referring to the vote (noun) of a particular M.P., and you’ve got a sentence fragment. Best to follow the same rule as for nouns: 's is singular possesive, s is plural. ---
**Author:** ![Skullar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Skullar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skullar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 1999, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815/24 "1999-08-23T19:55:00Z")
Well Tipi asked a slightly different question than mine and I wasn’t sure whether to make a new thread, actually I didn’t see this one before posting… So I am reposting below: How would someone write: “The **McDonald’s (plural)** of the world…” McDonald’s, here, representing a term with a specific meaning. So far I’ve received various replies (McDonalds, McDonalds’, McDonald’s’, and McDonald’ses) to my query. ---
**Author:** ![VileOrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9e8a1a/32.png) [@VileOrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VileOrb)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 1999, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815/25 "1999-08-24T19:30:00Z")
Pluto, don’t listen to Stark. Though the apostraphe used in pluralizing acronyms has been dropped in less formal writing especially on the web, most style guides (like Strunk and White and the AP) say that the apostraphe is necessary or preferred. There was a thread discussing exactly this just a couple of weeks ago (I started it - I’m a tech writer also). I’d link you to it but, for some reason, I can’t get the search engine to work. The web is changing the way we use written language very quickly. I am very happy to be here to watch it happen. However, some of the changes I don’t like. I miss the double space after a period. It makes it much harder to scan a page without the clear visual sentence breaks. The apostraphe for plural acronyms and “initializations” may disapppear soon. * * * If men had wings, and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows. - Rev. Henry Ward Beecher ---
**Author:** ![RavingMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@RavingMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RavingMad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 1999, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815/26 "1999-08-26T05:18:00Z")
Finally, a debate with at least a shred of empirical evidence! VileOrb, I don’t have my AP guide with me, so I had to turn the Web for backup of my post regarding acronyms and initialisms – though I’d swear the AP advises against the apostrophe method. I’ll have to check tonight. Anyway, found a site written by a copy editor at the _Washington Post_. He says no apostrophe is needed in initialisms. [http://www.theslot.com/part2.html#rbi](http://www.theslot.com/part2.html#rbi) Of course, he also flies in the face of the AP and advises in favor of s’s, so what the hell does he know? 🙂 * * * ~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ss-issue/2815.md?page=1)