2 Responses to “Apostrophe Abuse”

1. 

   October 30, 2013 at 6:31 pm

   June,

   I have to (very) respectfully disagree with your use of 'S to pluralize DVD and CD. In this week's podcast, you said we should spell those words DVD'S and CD'S as a way to show plural.

   The proper way, insofar as I have been taught, is that it should be DVDs and CDs. Since the two words are an initialism/acronym of digital video disc and compact disc, the original letters are capitalized to show that they are initialisms. Since the S is not part of the original phrase, it should not be capitalized.

   So if you lowercase the S, there's no need to use an apostrophe to show that it's different from the other letters.

   That's my "too sense," anyway. Love the podcast!

   Erik Deckers
2. 

   October 31, 2013 at 6:57 pm

   Erik: I think we're in agreement. Unless I misspoke, the point was that it's okay in all-capital contexts, like a sign in all capital letters: DVD'S FOR SALE. I agree 100% that if you can use a lowercase S, no apostrophe should be used.

Click here to cancel reply.

Name *

E-Mail *

Website