[NTLK] [Bulk] [OT] 20 MB memory cards FAQ

Doug Denby ddenby at rogers.com
Sat Dec 22 13:43:34 EST 2012


I agree with the idea that FAQ could already be a plural. 

There are lots of words in English like this: moose, moose; fox, fox; sheep, sheep. Yep, these are all animal names.

Occasionally numbering words like dozen and hundred use the same word for singular and plural: A dozen roses. Ten dozen roses. A hundred antelope. Five hundred antelope.

One can also say dozens of roses and hundreds of people (or antelope).

Ain't English grand!

Doug

P.S. It is little wonder that handwriting recognition is such a difficult function for computers. Heck the humans writing the stuff can barely figure out how to express themselves, and get upset if the machine decodes the writing to something other that exactly what was written.


On 2012-12-22, at 11:57 AM, Gary McQueen wrote:

> I, too, learned early in my education that the apostrophe was to be used 
> to indicate the plural form of acronyms.  I'm glad that others have 
> mentioned it because I thought I had been wrong all these years!  
> However, there is also the question of whether FAQ should be pluralized 
> at all .... the _s_ would be understood since it forms part of the word 
> _Questions_.  :-)
> 
> Gary
> 
> Doug Denby wrote:
> 
>> In previous versions of English punctuation, an apostrophe was used to append the "s" in plurals. This habit seems to have evolved out of modern punctuation, but it makes sense when applying the plural to an abbreviation as it separates the actual abbreviation from the plural suffix, which could otherwise be considered part of the abbreviation. The lack of a subsequent noun that would make the noun with the apostrophe into an adjective is sufficient to recognize the purpose of the apostrophe.
>> 
>> And for a similar reason it can and maybe should be applied to proper nouns, such as the Smith's and the Jones's, and maybe even to the Gruendel's. 
>> 
>> Doug
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> ==================================================================== 
> The NewtonTalk Mailing List - http://newtontalk.net/
> The Official Newton FAQ     - http://splorp.com/newton/faq/
> The Newton Glossary         - http://splorp.com/newton/glossary/
> WikiWikiNewt                - http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
> ====================================================================




More information about the NewtonTalk mailing list