Getting angry at the Tim's drive-in

[london_calling]

Note to Tim Horton's: the plural of TV is not TV's, but TVs.

Thank you.

(also, please don't seriously piss me off before I've had a chance to have my morning coffee when it's still dark outside!)

Comments

[ladykutenay]

....I actually thought an apostrophe was an accepted way of pluralizing that kind of abbreviation.

*ducks*

(Oh wait, I looked it up. I guess it's sort of controversial?)

[london_calling]

Hiya!

Misusing the apostrophe is one of my pet-peeves (who knew? ha!). The pluralization of abbreviations is trying to be phased out (see my reply below). But main-stream culture tends to use it, still. Have you ever seen a sign boosting "CD's for sale"? Well, unless they are selling the jackets that below to the CDs (and forgot to mention that part), it's incorrect.

Same goes for DVDs, VCRs, etc.

Ok, I'll get off the apostrophe rant now....

[littlegirltoast]

Apostrophes are totally acceptable for pluralizing acronyms.

[london_calling]

It's an older usage that should be (and is trying to be) phased out:

"Chicago Manual of Style... recommend[s] that the apostrophe be used in such plural
constructions only when necessary to avoid confusion."

Most style guides advise against this type of apostrophe usage, unless it would look odd (i.e. "mind your ps and thank-yous).

I was taught using the Chicago Manual of Style....I wish I could back myself up here using it, but alas, my writing bible is on my desk at work, and I am at home, sick.

[littlegirltoast]

I'm a mere hobbyist when it comes to grammatical grievances and can't claim to have the authority of any particular style manual behind my estimations, but I find the idea of a usage "trying to be phased out" very confusing. Obviously the usage itself isn't a thing and can't make any efforts toward preservation or extinction on its own behalf. I'm sure it's a thing that people say, but I feel like it's a bit of a trick to imply a specious unanimity or objectivity with regard to what people think is going on with the rules.

I don't think you can make the claim that using an apostrophe to pluralize an acronym is "incorrect", per se, when it has been an established and accepted usage and remains favoured by many writers today. If it didn't, then you wouldn't see it often enough to be irritated by it.

I think the hyphenation you've employed in the replies to Eden and me in this post is enthusiastic, if not overzealous, and I don't need to check to know that the Chicago Manual of Style wouldn't recommend the use of a four-dotted

[london_calling]

I was commenting on a public sign that annoyed me personally, not someone's personal writing style.

Businesses should be more grammatically correct, as they are public, and, in the case of a large corporation such as Tim Horton's, (I would assume) had marketing people create them for the public eye. Journals can use whatever writing style that particular person uses, if that medium is only intended for personal use. I've never claimed to use perfect grammar in my own writing, and yes, I do tend to have a personal style (the hyphens come from studying the 18th century for many many years), but a journal is a little different. In any academic writing I have done, I ensure proper grammatical construction.

Any English and publishing course I've ever taken has discouraged this specific use of the apostrophe.

And since I cited Chicago, I should quote the specific reference

[erins_pub]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who grimaces when I see that kind of thing.