Apostrophe s for plural

Question

Apart from irregular noun, do we always convert noun to plural by simply adding s, or es for those end with s, or just an apostrophe s for plural noun that ends with s?

I have seen people add an apostrophe before adding an s or es for the plural, not for the possessive case but for some odd or made-up nouns, such as stat dec's and so on just to show the actual spelling of the word in question. Is it legitimate?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

healerI have seen people add an apostrophe before adding an s or es for the plural, not for the possessive case but for some odd or made-up nouns, such as stat dec's and so on just to show the actual spelling of the word in question. Is it legitimate?

I can't see using "'es" in any event. The plurals of ad hoc abbreviations should be formed in the regular way. If you are brave enough to use "stat dec", you should boldly go with "stat decs" for the plural.

There are times when the apostrophe is good, as in the plural of the letter "a", which formed in the regular way would be the word "as", when you want a's. This opens the door for all the letters, as in "p's and q's" and "ABC's".

Cool Breeze · Answer

If a noun ends in an s-sound, the plural ending is es: two watches, two dresses.

Decades ago, some grammarians observed a rule that said an apostrophe should be used if the plural s was added to something other than a word. This gave us

the 1980's, some MP's, lots of DVD's

I'm not saying that the above plurals are wrong, but the apostrophe certainly adds nothing to clarity and may cause confusion in some cases when the genitive is needed. So you're better off leaving out the apostrophe.

CB

Apostrophe s for plural

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