Originally Posted by
mr_bill
There are actual style guides that still recommend apostrophe-s for plurals of acronyms when the letters are not pronounced as a word.
So there are fricken lasers and obsolete CRT’s.
Other style guides reserve the plural apostrophe-s for single lowercase spoken letters or single digit numbers.
So they got all 6’s and 7’s crossing their i’s and dotting their t’s
-mr. bill
If I had written the post, it would be
apostrophes
CRTs
6s and 7s
crossing their Is and Ts
There are two thoughts to language and usage: 1) scholars of the language dictate its proper usage. That's why there are the official dialects, local dialects and proper spelling; 2) language and culture and their evolution are the products of the people on the street using them.
When I was going to school during the '70s and '80s, we were taught to use the Oxford Dictionary because it was the dictionary of the English Language. Webster is American. As the internet culture grew, Oxford started adding words what were commonly used by the texting communities.
In another thread, I commented to the OP that he
had written "are a" in one sentence and in the second sentence "is a" to reference the same thing in the same paragraph. I wasn't kindly received but he did edit his posting afterwards.
Examples: The Beatles are a rock band. The Beatles is a rock band. The RCMP are a police force. The RCMP is a police force. Canada are a country. Canada is a country.
Here's a couple of news reports:
"...the RCMP are..."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcm...aign-1.5305905
"The RCMP is..."
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-...ional-culture/