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The possessive form of an English noun, or more generally a noun phrase, is made by suffixing a morpheme which is represented orthographically as ' s (the letter s preceded by an apostrophe), and is pronounced in the same way as the regular English plural ending (e)s: namely, as / ɪ z / when following a sibilant sound (/ s /, / z /, / ʃ /, / ʒ /, / tʃ / or / dʒ /), as / s / when following ...
The plural of individual letters is usually written with -'s: [22] there are two h's in this sentence; mind your p's and q's; dot the i's and cross the t's. Some people extend this use of the apostrophe to other cases, such as plurals of numbers written in figures (e.g. "1990's"), words used as terms (e.g. "his writing uses a lot of but's").
An apostrophe can be used in the plural form of a single letter, as seen in the team logo of the Oakland A's. Following an evolution in usage in the 20th century, today "the apostrophe of plurality continues in at least five areas": [8] abbreviations, letters of the alphabet/small words, numbers, family names, and in non-standard use.
There can be confusion over a plural possessive form. If the singular is "book's title" and the plural "books' titles", the latter can appear as "book's", or even "books's". The plural can be written with an erroneous apostrophe ("grocer's apostrophe" in Britain): "apple's and pear's".
Examples are stewardi (supposed plural of stewardess) and Elvi (as a plural for Elvis imitators). The Toyota corporation has determined that their Prius model should have the plural form Prii, even though the Latin word prius has a plural priora, the Lada Priora having prior claim to that name—though the common plural is "Priuses".
Plurals of vowel names also take -es (i.e., aes, ees, ies, oes, ues), but these are rare. For a letter as a letter, the letter itself is most commonly used, generally in capitalised form, in which case the plural just takes -s or -'s (e.g. Cs or c's for cees).
For example, ⠃ b on its own is normally read as the word but; to indicate that it is instead the letter b, the letter sign is used: ⠰ ⠃ b. Plurals of letters (mind your ps and qs) always use an apostrophe in braille, but other derivations may not, as in ⠰ ⠝ ⠹ nth [time]: ⠠ ⠎ ⠬ is Sing, ⠰ ⠠ ⠎ ⠬ is S-ing/Essing. [26]
Ask Oxford states that CDs is the usual plural, although it gives other examples where both versions are accepted. Personally, I would never add an apostrophe to a plural abbreviation as I was taught that they should be avoided at all costs, unless referring to lower case letters, as in "Mind your p's and q's."
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