Comments on: Be Sure to Dot Your is!

By: Maeve

Maeve — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:34:05 +0000

jb,
Please tell me where to look in the OED for forming
the plural of the letter i as ies.

All I could find in the big OED is:
Illustrations of the literary use of the letter: a. simply. (The plural appears as Is, I’s, is, i’s.)

Ask Oxford has this:
in the plurals of single letters:  There are only three s’s in `Christmases’.  Mind your p’s and q’s.  (Even here, the capital letter would not need the apostrophe.)

Thanks.

By: jb

jb — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:20:56 +0000

according to the oxford english dictionary, the plural of i would be ies.

By: Al G.

Al G. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:15:15 +0000

I have referred to Roy Copperud’s Dictionary of Usage and Style (copyright 1964) for years, at the suggestion of a journalist. Copperud said that “conservative usage” still calls for apostophes to indicate the plural of a letter, sign, symbol or other non-word but there was (in 1964) a strong trend away from it. An inflexible rule calling for the omission of apostrophes can lead to trouble now and then, as an As, which comes out more intelligently as A’s. He argued against inflexible rules.

By: Grace S.

Grace S. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:55:33 +0000

Bryce (#7), those would be “Elvises,” since “Elvis’s” would be a possessive and whatever Elvis owned would have to follow. Punctuation, grammar, and spelling rules, when followed and understood, absolutely contribute to more precise communication!

By: Maeve

Maeve — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:56:44 +0000

Tim,
You raise a good point. I’ll respond with a post next week.
Thanks.