-----Original Message----- From: Gomi no Sensei [mailto:gomi at speakeasy.net] Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 7:03 PM To: Howard Brazee Cc: Dragaera \(E-mail\) Subject: RE: Off topic - grammar question On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Howard Brazee wrote: > OK, pretend I said "case" instead of capitalization. It was pretty obvious > what I meant. Yes, you mean that capitalising the letters in CD v. cd somehow make it plural, which is literally incomprehensible to me. > > Using an apostrophe-s to > > indicate a plural is neither old nor well established, > Is too. (your turn) As the claimant, I should think providing some scintilla of evidence rather relies on you. > > and mere > > commonality of usage is not some sort of lapis philosophorum that > > renders the incorrect correct. > > But dictionaries do list such. Um, so? I hope you don't mean to say that because a usage is in a dictionary, it is therefore correct. pe Here is another reference. Note that it says that not *all* authorities agree on this. warbi Apostrophes with Italicized or Underlined Items Letters, numbers, symbols, and words used as themselves are italicized or underlined. See Underlining or Italicizing Items that Name Themselves for more on this. When these items are made plural, the plural is shown by adding apostrophe s to the underlined or italicized item. The apostrophe and s are not italicized or underlined. Acronyms are also made plural by adding apostrophe s. Some authorities do not recognize this rule. These two instances are the only times in English when adding an apostrophe plus s makes something plural. source: http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000135.htm