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APS Message Forum :: General :: Apostrophe Use & Abuse :: Contraction or not at all? Author Topic: Contraction or not at all? (Read 201 times) whoisit New Member member is offline Joined: Apr 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 4 Contraction or not at all? « Thread Started on May 4, 2012, 1:48pm » Hi Again Every month we have a list of people who Did Not Attend and we print out, for example, DNA's 96. Is the apostrophe right for a contraction of the word Attends? Or should it just be DNAs 96 Thanks for looking Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged hubertus Senior Member member is offline Joined: Jan 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 460 Location: W. Yorkshire, England Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #1 on May 4, 2012, 6:15pm » Plural words simply take s with no apostrophe: DNAs. It's not a contraction, it's an abbrieviation. Convention has it that we don't use the apostrophe for abbrieviations. Also, the full stop between abbrieviations has gone out of favour. For instance, the former P.T.O., e.g. and so on. Hence no D.N.A. « Last Edit: May 7, 2012, 8:42pm by hubertus » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Tone Advanced Member member is offline "I don't do Happy." Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 909 Location: West of London (ex-Hampshire) Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #2 on May 4, 2012, 8:52pm » Were you back in the 1960's (like that) you would be quite "normal" to use the apostrophe. Now, in the 2110s, you would be either out-of-date (like me), or judged to be "wrong" by many ordinary people as well as the APS "official line". Tone Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged John (Forum Admin) Administrator APS Forum Administrator & Webmaster member is offline John Hale, APS Forum Administrator & Webmaster Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 132 Location: South Dorset, UK Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #3 on May 5, 2012, 12:27am » May 4, 2012, 6:15pm, hubertus wrote: Also, the full stop between abbrieviations has gone out of favour. For instance, the former P.T.O., e.g. and so on. Hence no D.N.A. I worked for BBC Television in London for 31 years and at the start of my time there in 1964 all the B.B.C. vehicles had very prominent full stops after each letter as shown here. They were everywhere within the Corporation - and even appeared on the first transmitted Test Cards as "B.B.C. Television Service". See here: http://txlib.mb21.co.uk/main.php?g2_itemId=750 I think the cut-backs killed them off! Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged John Hale (APS Forum Administrator & Webmaster) Dave Advanced Member member is offline Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 702 Location: San Jose, CA Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #4 on May 5, 2012, 2:35am » Saving ink? Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Dave John (Forum Admin) Administrator APS Forum Administrator & Webmaster member is offline John Hale, APS Forum Administrator & Webmaster Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 132 Location: South Dorset, UK Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #5 on May 5, 2012, 6:51pm » May 5, 2012, 2:35am, Dave wrote: Saving ink? Yep! Think so. At the same time they stopped printing "Property of the B.B.C." on every sheet of [hard] toilet paper! Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged John Hale (APS Forum Administrator & Webmaster) Tone Advanced Member member is offline "I don't do Happy." Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 909 Location: West of London (ex-Hampshire) Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #6 on May 5, 2012, 8:28pm » >I worked for BBC Television in London for 31 years and at the start of my time there in 1964 all the B.B.C. vehicles had very prominent full stops < I was with G.E.C. / G E C in the '60s and they changed it from G.E.C. to the dotless version. It was said that Arnold (Weinstock) had decreed it. But I've still got (somewhere) an original plastic logo badge with the dots thereon. Tone « Last Edit: May 5, 2012, 8:29pm by Tone » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged whoisit New Member member is offline Joined: Apr 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 4 Re: Contraction or not at all? « Reply #7 on May 6, 2012, 10:07am » Thanks everyone for the informative and humorous replies I guess from now on it's DNAs Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Forum Jump--------------------» Home--------------------» General--------------------- Apostrophe Use & Abuse --- Welcome, APS Policy & Forum News- Other English Language Problems

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