Richard Crowley wrote:
"Cecil Moore" wrote ...

Dave wrote:

Methinks your leg was being pulled.

The SWR with the apostrophe s is a grammatical error. The apostrophe
s indicates that the SWR is possessive, that the SWR owns something;
or, that the SWR is doing something. The apostrophe s is not plural!!


On the contrary, the plural of the letter A is A's. The plural
of the number 3 is 3's. It's not too much of a stretch to assume
that the plural of SWR is SWR's.

From Webster's: "apostrophe - a make used to indicate ... the
plural of letters or figures."


To take the argument well into absurdity (as if it
needed any help), we can discuss whether your
Webster's is descriptive or prescriptive.
good one
If I can ever help in increasing the absurdity of these newsgroups, I am
glad to do so.

BTW, all dictionaries are descriptive.

jawod wrote:
BTW, all dictionaries are descriptive.

But all Basic Manuals of Style are prescriptive.
Please see my other posting.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

jawod writes:

I don't understand. Possessive is the new standard? Your chops get busted
whey you write "last year's work"?
That IS possessive.

Is it? I've always wondered. Does the work "belong" to last year?
Does last year "own" the work? It's *my* work that was done last year.

Curious,

// marc

"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...



I get my chops busted if I write with say last year's work instead of
last years work.

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -


1. Too bad you have to work for/with people like that. " ... last year's
work" is correct. The possessive does not exclusively denote ownership. It
also denotes the "of or pertaining to" relationship, as in "Cleveland's bus
system."

2. I just went to the McGraw-Hill Learning Center

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/site.../chapter1/apos
trophes.html

and took their apostrophe quiz

Results Reporter
Out of 17 questions, you answered 17 correctly, for a final grade of 100%.

17 correct (100%)
0 incorrect (0%)
0 unanswered (0%)

Here's the most interesting one:

Last years womens softball team is much better than this years. [The stem
omits apostrophes.]

C) Last year's women's softball team is much better than this year's.
Feedback: Correct!

3. Despite the absolute correctness of the apostrophe for the plural of
numbers and letters, I see a lot of acronyms and abbreviations made plural
by the addition of an "s" without the apostrophe and I don't flinch. I
think the language is evolving regarding acronyms, which, after all, are
less than 100 years old. Therefore, I vote to accept "SWRs."

73,
"Sal"
(KD6VKW)

You want to see errors? Go check out the encyclopedia brittanica.
cuhulin

Marco S Hyman wrote:
jawod writes:


I don't understand. Possessive is the new standard? Your chops get busted
whey you write "last year's work"?
That IS possessive.


Is it? I've always wondered. Does the work "belong" to last year?
Does last year "own" the work? It's *my* work that was done last year.

Curious,

// marc
yes at least to me "last year's work" as opposed to some other
"year's work" pretty sure that's possessive

John

jawod wrote:
yes at least to me "last year's work" as opposed to some other
"year's work" pretty sure that's possessive

A year is an it. Is it possessive because it's its work?
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

Everybody is correct and everybody is wrong.

According to Turabian's "A Manual for Writers", plurals of most single
and multiple capital letters used as nouns are formed by adding "s"
alone. Example: SWRs
Form the plural of small letters, capital letters with periods, and
capital letters that would be confusing if "s" alone were added by
adding apostrophe and "s".

Now, everybody, back to work and mind your p's and Qs

73

hayseed wrote:

Everybody is correct and everybody is wrong.

According to Turabian's "A Manual for Writers", plurals of most single
and multiple capital letters used as nouns are formed by adding "s"
alone. Example: SWRs
Form the plural of small letters, capital letters with periods, and
capital letters that would be confusing if "s" alone were added by
adding apostrophe and "s".

Now, everybody, back to work and mind your p's and Qs

73


My question is: just what is/are "SWR's" and "SWRs"

Dave WD9BDZ

hayseed wrote:
Now, everybody, back to work and mind your p's and Qs

As in words like, "amen", are pronounced "ah".

That certainly seems confusing to me and the confusion
is not apparent until more than halfway through the
sentence.

A's in words like, "amen", are pronounced "ah".

No confusion there.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp