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Subject:Re: Plural form of abbreviations From:"Parks, Beverly L." <parksb -at- HUACHUCA-EMH7 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL> Date:Wed, 26 Jun 1996 06:46:00 MST
The replies to this have sure been varied! My view on it is that if
adding the s makes the abbreviation more readable, then add it. For
years, US Army regulation has been -not- to add an s to abbreviations or
acronyms--the abbreviation stands for the word (or words) in all its
forms--past tense, gerund, plural, whatever. However, that was widely
ignored, mostly out of ignorance of the regulation.
On all-capped acronyms, add a lowercase s with NO apostrophe. Using an
apostrophe to form a plural is WRONG. Apostrophes are used to form
possessives and contractions. Now that I've said that, there are
necessary exceptions. Some abbreviations would be made more confusing by
adding only an s; in those cases, you should use an apostrophe. For
example, a's (otherwise it's confused with the word "as").
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