On OEDILF the question has arisen about creating plurals of parts of speech. I wanted to refer to several instances of the indefinite articles "a" and "an".

As we have discussed in the past, it makes sense to use an apostrophe in "a", making the plural A's (...There are six A's in this sentence...") but what do we do about "an" - or for that matter, "the"?

Neither "ans" nor "thes" seem very satisfactory and "an's" and "the's" seem to break the rules.

Thoughts anyone?

From The Lure of the Limerick:

A maiden at college named Breeze
Weighed down by B.A.'s and Litt.D's,
Collapsed from the strain.
Alas, it was plain
She was killing herself by degrees.

quote:

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As we have discussed in the past, it makes sense to use an apostrophe in "a", making the plural A's (...There are six A's in this sentence...") but what do we do about "an" - or for that matter, "the"?

Thoughts anyone?

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I'll attempt to break new ground and suggest that one might use the "number" sign, as in the#, denoting more than one "the." Too loony for you? Well, you asked to thoughts!

Interesting question, Richard. My first impulse was to say use the apostrophe. But, then I thought if you put the word in quotes, people would understand the sentence, as in "The 'ans' and 'thes' in the sentence make it work." That is probably what jheem would say.

However, on third thought it just looks wrong. Whether the Chicago Manual of Style Nazi likes it or not, I'd use the apostrophe. You have to go with what people will understand.

Asa, how would that look?

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
But, then I thought if you put the word in quotes, people would understand the sentence, as in "The 'ans' and 'thes' in the sentence make it work." That is probably what jheem would say.

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I'd do the same, Kalleh, but I'd only put the word itself in quotes, thus:

"an"s and "the"s (or 'an's and 'the's).

I'd do the same, Kalleh, but I'd only put the word itself in quotes, thus:

Well, that's interesting. However, my third thought had me going back to and's and an's.

This is an interesting question.

There is no right or wrong way of doing this of course, becuase the rules of grammar aren't set down by law. I would use italics - thes and ans - and the hand-written equivalent of italics is underlining.