Correct use of apostrophes

pogo · 19 Jun 2006 at 02:10

I'm a little confused;

Dictionary.com says:

The superscript sign ( ' ) used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word, the possessive case, or the plurals of numbers, letters, and abbreviations.

But The Apostrophe Protection Society says:

3. Apostrophes are NEVER ever used to denote plurals!

...

MOT's at this garage which should read MOTs at this garage

1000's of bargains here! which should read 1000s of bargains here!

I would normally consider an apostrophe in "the 80's" as correct (as in the nineteen eighties), and an apostrophe in CPU's (plural of CPU) as incorrect, but those two websites listed above have conflicting views.

Which is correct?

Gilly · 19 Jun 2006 at 02:11

Dictionary.com is a Yank site. I'd always go with whoever said different

SideWinder · 19 Jun 2006 at 02:14

CPUs.
Jess' party.
80s.

Nozzer · 19 Jun 2006 at 02:32

Nothing like a grocer's apostrophe.

Spot the irony.

Nozzer · 19 Jun 2006 at 02:32

SideWinder said:
CPUs.
Jess' party.
80s.

Technically that should be Jess's, but we're all lazy these days.

pogo · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:02

That's that cleared up then.

Thanks guys.

SideWinder · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:05

Nozzer said:
Technically that should be Jess's, but we're all lazy these days.

I have always been taught to leave it off if the name already ends in S.

Andelusion · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:11

's - possessive inflection or as a conjunction of he/she is etc

SideWinder · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:20

http://www.queens-english-society.com/goodeng2.html

wedgie · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:41

I have always been taught to leave it off if the name already ends in S.

That's how I thought it was aswell.

Amleto · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:53

wedgie22 said:
That's how I thought it was aswell.

depends on the sound of the last syllable

Amleto · 19 Jun 2006 at 04:52

vaultingSlinky said:
to be honest you could justify it either way

As in CPU(')s, writing CPU is an abbreviation of central processing unit (i hope), and so the ' between U and s could be justified as the ' is in place of U' nit 's.

Or at least thats the way i see it.

If you're talking about the CPU's cache, then ok. If you're talking about more than one CPU, then that's not correct. CPU is an acronym. If the ' is after one letter, it should be after all other letters.

MikeTimbers · 19 Jun 2006 at 07:33

On these very forums the other day, someone posted:

"He wen't missing"

which was nice.

sinister_stu · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:01

CPUs not CPU's

Also, CPU is not an acronym. It's an initialism.

Mulder · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:04

sinister_stu said:
CPUs not CPU's

Also, CPU is not an acronym. It's an initialism.

They mean the same thing, do they not?

dirtydog · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:08

MikeTimbers said:
On these very forums the other day, someone posted:

"He wen't missing"

which was nice.

Something else you see on these forums and lots of other places are things like:

"on it's own"

which makes as much sense as writing their's, your's or her's.

Most people seem to think it is correct though, but they are of course wrong.

sinister_stu · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:17

Mulder said:
They mean the same thing, do they not?

An acronym is an initialism, an initialism is only an acronym if a "word" is formed by the initials. So no, they are not the same thing.

Mulder · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:23

sinister_stu said:
An acronym is an initialism, an initialism is only an acronym if a "word" is formed by the initials. So no, they are not the same thing.

You learn something new every day.