By Grammar Girl
The World Series has fans asking how to make an abbreviation such as RBI plural. It can be confusing, since it’s the R-part (run) that is becoming plural. Should it be RsBI or RBIs or something else?
Even though it doesn’t make absolute logical sense, you make initialisms and acronyms plural by adding an s to the end no matter what part would be plural if you wrote the whole thing out: even though it would be runs batted in, you write it RBIs.
Can You Ever Use an Apostrophe?
In the past, some publications used apostrophes to make acronyms and abbreviations plural, so until a few years ago, it was common to see something like RBI’s or CD’s in the New York Times. Currently, all major publications and style guides I’m aware of recommend simply adding an s (without an apostrophe).
When Do You Use Periods?
Whether you put periods after the letters in an acronym such as NASA or an initialism such as RBI is a style choice. Some publications do and some publications don’t.
Thanks to @NutritionDiva and @catester for the question.
Mignon Fogarty is the author of 101 WORDS TO SOUND SMART. Find out how to get free wallpapers when you preorder the book before November 7, 2011.
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You should use apostrophes when the word that results by just adding an S makes another word. As vs A’s…
Yes, apostrophes are used with plural capitalized letters that may cause confusion in the plural form and plural lowercase letters. However, I don’t think you would run into that problem often with initialisms and acronyms, because they are usually more than one letter.
-Neal
Yes, it goes against logic to an extent, but you’re correct. I remember sports folks debating this topic when I was a child. I recently discussed how to make initialisms and acronyms plural at my blog, too.
Great topic!
-Neal
Nice and timely article. I would also add some common mistakes in this category: Cd’s, 1990′s. These should be written CDs and 1990s.
True. You generally use apostrophes with lowercase single letters (“Mind your p’s and q’s,” as anyone who’s been to one of my book signings knows!), but the Chicago Manual of Style recommends not using the apostrophe for letter grades, so you’d write that your son got three As this quarter. The Associated Press, however, does recommend apostrophes with letter grades, so it’s definitely a style choice.
I think they’re spelt “CD’s” (ie. caps on the D as well)
Apostrophes get used on acronyms to avoid reader confusion (which is the ultimate objective, no?) esp. where they end with a vowel, despite the fact that they’re *technically* incorrect.
BTW: IMO newsprint style guides are for bloated dinosaurs, and have demonstrated no aptitude or practical purpose in the socialmedia space.
If you’d like a different source, the “Yahoo! Style Guide” also recommends an s with no apostrophe: CDs and MP3s. (They didn’t have any single-letter examples I could find.)
PS: I suspect that once you turn a phrase into an acronym, it becomes a collective noun. So adding an “s” on the end of it wouldn’t modify the wrong letter. IMO
Yahoo’s “content” quality and editorial prowess speaks for itself
…I wouldn’t take them as an authority on anything, if they can’t even catch basic typos
What about the sentence, “Dot your ‘i’s'”? Wouldn’t “Dot your ‘is’” be too confusing? Also, should I have added a period inside the end quotation mark in those two sentences? Should the “i” in “i’s” be capitalized? I’m SO confused. :/
Yes, I would write “Dot your i’s.” It’s just like “Mind your p’s and q’s.”
Jo, so you prefer CD’s instead of CDs even though the Associated Press, the “Chicago Manual of Style,” and the “Yahoo! Style Guide” all recommend CDs, and you think it’s because the AP and “Chicago” don’t get the Internet and Yahoo! is incompetent? Is that what you’re saying?
I’ve always found that ending a sentence with a single quoted word to be ugly and unbalanced looking, because of the rigid rule about enclosing punctuation inside the closing quote mark. So I try to ad another word whenever possible, to make the “quote” less awkward looking.
BTW:
If someone were being quoted as saying “Dot your ‘I’s” I’d take the liberty (if possible) to rewrite the quote as “Your (letter) I’s should be dotted”
…For the sake of clarity.
mignonfogarty@
I place readability and clarity far above the rigid dictates of mainstream styleguides. It’s the Reader that I’m trying to communicate with after all, not an editor.
BTW: I capitalized reader (above) because it demonstrates an honorific title that I choose to bestow, in this particular case
Since mainstream media editors/writers require styleguides to facilitate their “copy and paste” style of work, then I’ll spare them the bother of needing to write/edit content into their current styleguide….as a professional courtesy.
If however, I’m communicating directly with readers via socialmedia, then I’m not going to bother purposely adulterating my copy by making it bloated and difficult to read, just for the sake of a mainstream styleguide.
IMO: “RBIs” is an ugly and poorly communicated way of saying RBI’s
OK, Jo. But I don’t get why you would follow me or read a post titled “How to Make ‘RBI’ Plural” if all you care about is what you think looks right instead of what style guides say. About 90% of my purpose is helping people understand what the mainstream style is. (The other 10% is just writing about what I find interesting.)
I appreciate what you do here and I’m always curious about the weird quirks of styleguides
ie.
BC/AD are a rarely used, yet nice short acronyms
Yet,
p.m./a.m. are a lengthy abbreviations for terms that get used constantly – and waste two characters with every use.
Why?
Who knows…
Just don’t question the “styleguide” because it knows what’s best ;-]
From a personal POV I feel that (like any set of rules), guides have to be open to interpretation, otherwise they become rigid, fall behind the times and eventually lose their utility.
I also think that it’s a scam that just a few minor tweaks are made to styleguides almost every year, perhaps just to assure sales to their captive audiences. Do they ever just print inserts/updates?
How is it that there’re still no styleguide-based grammar/dictionary checks for wordprocessor programs?
Why is the tail wagging the dog?
Anyhow…I’ve said way more than I intended to here.
Thanks for the forum
Happy Typo Hunting
It’s an acronym. It doesn’t matter whether you mean “Run batted in” or “Runs batted in” it’s still RBI.
I blame Lynne Truss for the apostrophe’s demise.
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