[Grammar/poll] Quick check ...

[dancefloorlandmine]

Should the plural of an acronym have an apostrophe?

[Poll #1217630]

I know what the Times and Oxford style guides say, but I was wondering about the opinions of my readership on the wonderful wibbly wobbly world wide web.

Comments

[kathbad]

Depends on context,

"More people are taking GCSEs this year" has no apostrophe.

"There is much discussion about the difficulty levels of the GCSEs' these days" does.

Unless I am wrong.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I'm not clear on the distinction between those two; why would you have an apostrophe in the second example but not the first?

[kathbad]

That is because I am being dumb.

The second sentence should be "the GCSEs' difficulty levels."

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

*heh* Ah, that makes sense! But in that case it's GCSEs', rather than GCSE's, and the apostrophe has nothing to do with the plural; it's possessive, which is a whole different issue, I guess.

[kathbad]

Indeed, the question is not clear!

I was just being pedantic on a Friday...

;)