RANT: 's with Acronyms - YOU'RE NOT HELPING

This post was started while I was temping at a publishing company in The States in mid-2013. I was proofing a listing of company names when I came across  So-and-So's CPA's. I first thought it was an error, and promptly marked it for correction. It wasn't until I received the listing for the second time, with my dutifly marked correction blotted out with a note saying the original version was correct, did I understand what was happening to American Business English....it was caving under the daft determination of the wannabe Grammar Nazi.

RANT!

My temp job with a local publication company has enlightened me to a new shift in current American English spelling habits : the use of the 's with acronyms to indicate pluralisation. For example NGOs (non-governmental organisations) has now become NGO's, and it is acceptable to do so in various public publications! GRRRRR!

Insisting that the acronym for non-governmental organisations should be spelled NGO's, rather than the traditionally used NGOs is NOT USEFUL. In fact, it is downright confusing.

But the apostrophe is supposed to be there, right?!?

As most of us should have learned in elementary school, and likely visited for a second time in middle school, the apostrophe, when combined with the letter -s, is used to denote possession of something:

Singular	Plural
The book belongs to Jane. It is, therefore, Jane's book.	The Joneses have a new car. The Joneses' car is red.

Or, to show the omission of a letter, or combination of letters:

Example 1	Example 2
Who has remembered their permission slip? Who's remembered their permission slip?	It is a lovely evening tonight. It's a lovely evening tonight.

In rare cases, the apostrophe-s combination may be used to denote the pluralisation of lower case letters such as the phrase "Mind your p's and q's." (NOTE: an acronym is a series of capital letters which are derived from the first letter of each word in a phrase or collection of words).

Otherwise, one simply adds an -s to the end of whatever they wish to pluralise.

Example 1 - Symbols and Numbers	Example 2 - Nouns
Many &s (Many ampersands) The 1960s (The years between 1960 and 1969)	Cats and dogs Stars and moons

So no, an apostrophe does NOT belong in NGOs when trying to discuss a situation involving more than one NGO. Were I wishing to refer to a report published by an NGO - the NGO's report, then an apostrophe would be appropriate.

But we NEED the apostrophe there, it's clearer and more simple this way!

Shifts in the use and practice of linguistic facets of a language are very often reactionary. For instance, as the rejection of a complex set of usage rules in favor of a more simplified system. One example of this can be seen in the orthographic reform of the German language in 1996 (Rechtschreibreform) which introduced new, simplified spelling conventions for certain words based on their pronunciation.

That's all well and good when you have Pf- and F- spellings for the 'f' sound and -ch, -ck, -k, and -q for a 'k' sound. It's just simple economics and good manners to your speakers to decide on just one spelling convention for each sound.

In this case for English, however, the existing grammar rule for the use of the apostrophe-s combination is SIMPLE and CLEAR. Add either 's or s' to show possession or simply add -s to show the plural form. The one exception? Use 's when showing the plural of lower case letters (because in this case these lower case letters are actually acting as nouns in your sentence, rather than as a part of a word).

Honestly, of all the grammar rules to pick a bone with you'd think English speakers would have gone after the rash of silent letters (i.e. knife and night) or perhaps the whole "i before e, except after c", which almost NEVER is the case. But no, those wannabe Grammar Nazis of English have determined it is the lack of an apostrophe in NGOs which must be 'fixed'.

If using an -'s after an acronym makes it clearer to the reader the author means more than one of those acronyms, then how, prey tell, does one convey more clearly to the reader the ownership the acronym has over something? We have traditionally used the 's to accomplish this. Oops! Didn't think about that one, did you?

Don't... just don't!

Honestly, of all the grammar rules to pick a bone with you'd think English speakers would have gone after the rash of silent letters (i.e. knife and night) or perhaps the whole "i before e, except after c", which almost NEVER is the case. But no, those wannabe Grammar Nazis of English have determined it is the lack of an apostrophe in NGOs which must be 'fixed'.

I admit I can be something of a grammar & spelling snob, (that would be part of what qualifies me for my current job (UPDATE: no longer employed here)) but I can be reasonable about linguistic shifts... provided they are beneficial to a language. In this particular situation there should be no debate regarding the use of the apostrophe-s. Come on! We learned this in grade school people!

/RANT 

 

 Resources

Apostrophe, Oxford English Dictionaries
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/apostrophe

Spelling Reform in German by Chris Upward (1997)
http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j21/german.php

The Apostrophe at the Purdue OWL
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/