Date:         Mon, 11 Jun 2001 21:36:23 -0700
Reply-To:     Charles McGehee <chasm@ELLTEL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Charles McGehee <chasm@ELLTEL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Apostrophes & spelling (was Re: Sears disaster- BOZO's heh)
Comments: To: T Berk <tberk@MINDSPRING.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <3B255856.7DD68EFD@mindspring.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

The Harbrace College Handbook (7th edition, 1972; p. 143; granted not the
most recent edition) says:

"Use the apostrophe and s to form the plural of lower case letters and of
abbreviations followed by periods.  When needed to prevent confusion, use
the apostrophe and s to form the plural of capital letters, of
abbreviations not following by periods, and of words referred to as words.

[examples]
a's, th's, p.s.'s, Ph.D.'s, P.O.W.'s
His I's are illegible, and his loss's look like lass's.
   [NOT Is, losss, or lasss]

Either  's or s may be used to form such plurals as the following:

the 1970's OR the 1970s
two B's OR two Bs
her and's OR her ands
his 7's OR his 7s
the &'s OR the &s
the VFW's OR the VFWs"

So, what has this got to do with Vanagons (or is it Vanagon's)?  I think I
missed something.

Charles
'85 Westy

At 04:46 PM 6/11/01 -0700, T Berk wrote:
>Andrew Grebneff wrote:
> >
> > (Some english scholar help me: should there be an apostrophe in bozo's for
> > the plural version, should it be bozos?) you're not a bozo for asking, at
> > least you realize there's a problem.
> >
> > NO there should not. An apostrophe is used to denote a possessive (Horace's
> > Vanagon), not plurals (there are two Horaces). It should NOT be used with
> > plural numbers (B29s) or acronyms (CRTs), unless it is intended to show
> > that the B29 or CRT "owns" something.
> >
> > Apostrophes are also used for certain contractions (they're, that's). The
> > Engish unfortunately still use them for certain clumsy contractions
> > ('phone, 'plane; surprisingly, they don't use sub' or car', but still
> > sometimes use to-day or to-morrow!).
><snip>
> > Plural of Bozo is Bozos.
> >
> > Andrew Grebneff
>
>
>Hmmm, I thought it was Boz'i.
>
>LOL!
>
>TBerk