You don't use apostophe's to plauralise anything.

[Brian Sweeney]

Well, if you had asked about using apostrophes in FORTRAN, we would have a definitive answer.

But- I think most everyone here had a light-hearted view of this thread, and several laughs.

I could not find a Backus-Naur Form for the English language. I did try to find one on the web. I knew that at least one was done many years ago. BNF would have explained it all.

[eric rose]

This message proudly brought to you and paid for by the Friends of the Apostrophe.

[David Hughes]

I'm still looking for the acronym in "120 RF's" and can't see it.

Regards, David

[35mmdelux]

your correct of course!

[tomalophicon]

Originally Posted by David Hughes

I'm still looking for the acronym in "120 RF's" and can't see it.

Regards, David

Keep looking, you'll find it.
Or is that an initialism?
Or is it an abbreviation?

[Brian Sweeney]

Originally Posted by David Hughes

I'm still looking for the acronym in "120 RF's" and can't see it.

Regards, David

It's not a TLA. It's the much less common TLA...
Two Letter Acronym, not a Three Letter Acronym.

[ajuk]

Originally Posted by DamenS

Only in the singular form: "A Nikon F's viewfinder is bright". If you were talking about ALL Nikon F's rather than one Nikon F, then it would be technically correct to say (assuming one believes in "clarification apostrophes" to pluralise as the NY Times style guide seemingly does): "All Nikon F's' viewfinders are bright" - which would be very awkward. What photomoof is saying is that in this plural AND possessive condition, only the first (non-possessive in this instance) apostrophe is used, such that what would otherwise be "All Nikon F's' viewfinders are bright" becomes "All Nikon F's viewfinders are bright".

Are you suggesting that Nikon F's Viewfinder and Two Nikon F's Viewfinders are both correct? I like the fact they think the pointless one should stay and the correct one shouldn't. BTW
The apostrophe always put the possession with what comes before it. http://youtu.be/H-ODpxSk36w

[David Hughes]

OK, how do you pronounce the acronym "RF" as a word? I can say that well known acronym "NATO" as a word, which is the test, but "RF" is just a plain old-fashioned abbreviation.

Regards, David

[Brian Sweeney]

It is pronounced "RF", ask any dog.

There are many acronyms that just get "spelled" out. At a meeting in the early 90's about optical networks, some one used the acronyms "SAR" and "ATM". "SAR" was pronouced as "sor" as in sorry, and "ATM" was just "A-T-M". I looked at him and asked "Why are we discussing putting synthetic aperture RADAR on an automatic teller machine?"

After that, no more TLA's at the meeting. So- many "TLA", just the letters get spelled out, like "R-F".

[tomalophicon]

Originally Posted by David Hughes

OK, how do you pronounce the acronym "RF" as a word? I can say that well known acronym "NATO" as a word, which is the test, but "RF" is just a plain old-fashioned abbreviation.

Regards, David

In my opinion it's an initialism that's been mistakenly issued to single word, thought to be two words.

[David Hughes]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

It is pronounced "RF", ask any dog.

Well, I dunno. Our dog is clever enough to be able to bark in French, German (Low & High) and Welsh but that stumped him. But you should have seen the way he rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling when he read your post...

Regards, David

[ajuk]

'90s not 90's

[ajuk]

I wish I hadn't started a thread on this, although I like the fact that even though I pointed out the error they didn't correct it.

[Keith]

I've been up all night reading the entire archive of RFF threads and individual posts.

Not once did incorrect use of an apostrophe cause me to misinterpret a post or its meaning.

[sepiareverb]

Being American and of a certain age I have no idea how to use punctuation or grammar. I do read a lot, but never have managed to get any of that sorted out as to right & wrong.

[rxmd]

Here's my favourite joke on punctuation:

A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, orders the bill, and as the waiter brings it to him he draws a gun and calmly shoots the waiter. Then he slowly gets up and turns to leave.

"Why?" asks the barman, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda", he says, at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Just read the thread again. Then picked up my copy of "Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press Oxford" and found this rule at the first page I looked at:-

"3. Do not use an apostrophe in - Golders Green, Bury St. Edmunds ... "

So I guess that not only are there rules for different countries but also for different towns.

Regards, David

PS Here's some free ones to insert as necessary ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''.

[David Hughes]

Originally Posted by back alley

yes, but is it art?

Hi,

Well, I don't give a 'art if it is or isn't. I knows what I like...

Regards, David

[greyelm]

It's sometimes difficult to know if a word needs its apostrophe.

[.... _]

Originally Posted by greyelm

It's sometimes difficult to know if a word needs its apostrophe.

Sure is. How about Messsucher for example, three esses and not an apostrophe to be seen. Mind you, RF is an abreviation of Messsucher so maybe one should be in there somewhere but infact since rangefinder is a single word the error is having two effs in the site logo. It should have been RF's I think since F's is an abreviation of Forums. Did someone say that already...

p.s. and another thing, "120 RF's" should be "120 R's" as an abbreviation. So its wrong whether you think "120 RF's" should have an apostrophe or not