"Straight A's" or "straight As"? I've been taught either way... any clarification?
I prefer the first.
>>7317804
As
I hate unnecessary apostrophes. Like when people write "the 60's" -- nope -- the 60s.
>>7318250
But I would rather just avoid that cliche entirely to be honest.
>>7318250
This. Apostrophes are the one thing nobody can fucking get right. How hard is it, seriously?
>>7318250
>straight As
straight as what, anon?
>>7317804
And to clarify why it should be As instead of A's:
You use 's to show possession (it's called a possessive apostrophe) and indicates possession (eg. "The kid's hamster was cute").
In your sentence however we just have to pluralize "A", which we do with just adding "s" to the end.
But I do get the confusion, because the sentence looks like you just capitalized a random word in the sentence - if you don't know the context.
Mens room or Men's room?
>>7318293
Exactly why I would avoid this sentence altogether. But most intelligent people would figure it out, given the capitalized 'A'.
>>7318305
Isn't that just a thinly veiled ad hominem against people who think the usage "A's" is preferable?
It sounds like you're just saying smart people can figure it out as a way to brush off clarity concerns by other people who may be equally smart, but find the lack of apostrophe unaesthetic.
A's.
As is as used by an ass, who doesn't know how to distinguish the apostrophe from it's possesitive function.
>>7318336
if it's plural of A why would you put an apostrophe?
>>7318333
What I am saying is that I would entirely avoid the issue, but if I was forced to write a sentence with A's or As included, I would go for As. As it is grammatically correct, whereas A's is not.
And yes, I do think it is an aesthetic thing as well. A's is ugly as all hell. No reason to clutter the text.
>>7318345
because my autism isn't so strong that I can't ignore rules temporarily for the sake of clarity/aesthetics.
>>7318345
>if it's plural
it's not
>>7318257
I know, right? Its always the one thing people cant get right.
>>7318368
'As' is the more aesthetic choice, though.
By the way, it's also 90s and not 90's
>>7318301
>Mens room or Men's room?
Men's
Girl's show or girls' show?
>>7318390
I would prefer the latter hehe
>>7318390
But why does it say MENS outside of bathrooms
>>7318378
except it fucks up in certain situations. Namely, if the "As" comes as the first word in the sentence.
"As across the board, congrats anon!" this is shit.
"A's across the board, etc" is better.
regardless this is a nonissue and won't hold my attention much longer.
Straight ayyyyyyyssss
>>7318378
Ni'gga p'lee'z
>>7318399
It's fun to pluralize something twice.
Jesus' penis or Jesus's vagina?
>>7318399
Aesthetics probably
>>7318406
That's why you avoid it when it fucks you up. Just write around it.
The apostrophe has long been used to denote a break in speech such as a glottal stop or as a typographical element used to explain difficult things in text such as 60's or A's.
The first quote in the OED for the sense of A as a grade is from the Harvard Advocate of 1896:
"Not a whit deterred by the fact of three E's and two D's at the mid years, she set out to make Harris take five A's at the finals."
The OED has several quotations for
>>7318424
>Just write around it.
This is why this method sucks.
Language ought to be fluid not constructed with effort.
>>7318424
"no"
>>7318378
Arse is the more aesthetic choice.
>>7318368
what a faggot you are. changing the rules to fit your own little world is the definition of autism, idiot. It's only unclear if you are an utter retard so perhaps that explains why you need the change to figure it out
>>7318433
>ought to be fluid
>constructed with effort.
They are not mutually exclusive.
>>7318448
>definition of autism
It definitely isn't.
>>7318433
>ought
Naivete is never attractive anon
>>7318454
taking everything literally and not understanding context is another sign of autism, well done.
>>7318454
>>7318293
It's pronounced ayyz not az
I remember writing "straight "A"s" when I was younger but now it looks so wrong.
>>7318477
With quotation marks?
>>7318484
Yes. Well, around the letter A.
>>7318489
You put a quotation mark in A"s instead of apostrophe: A's.
Was confused whether that was a typo, or how you actually wrote it as a kid.
>>7318250
no, it's the '60s. but w/e u wanna beeleev
>>7318467
except the addition of an apostrophe is a consideration on the part of the reader, not the writer.
by being all up your own ass about not having apostrophes as per this discussion you're making the reader's task more difficult in favor of your own stylistic preferences: autism by your own definition. Get hoisted by yer own petard, 'tard.
>>7318510
Not my definition, I did not define autism. And it is not more difficult for the reader, because, as I have said many times, I would simply not use it if there was any confusion to be had.
I do not want to make a grammatically incorrect sentence to accommodate the fact that many people incorrectly use apostrophes.
>>7318448
Also, this is not me, which you seem to assume it is.
>>7318460
Like it or not, you fool, we build our relations with everything external, especially social constructs, from within by values we give to outside properties, meaning we attach an objective judgement on things then incorporate that into our outlooks on the outside. Subjectivity only comes into play when you abstractly formulate notions of Others' own objectivity and the resultant doubtfulness of the truth of your own values in relation to that. In short, you can only call me naive in that aspect from a position of ignorance.
>>7318488
>someone else changed the meaning of an apostrophe unnecessarily in 1896 so that makes it right.
Convinced, awesome m8
>someone else changed the meaning of an apostrophe unnecessarily in 1896
That's just, like, your opinion man.
>>7318589
>getting rused by an obvious memepost
>we all do things arbitrarily so that proves that Hume's claim about this being the case and that there is no real 'ought' is wrong.
stop please
>>7318589
7/10
>>7318589
>mad
>>7318593
>changed
No, people have been using the apostrophe for a whole variety of things for over a hundred years. It isn't the precious possessive that prosciptivists think it is.
>>7318616
people have been spelling 'your' as 'yer' for years too. Is that an equally correct spelling family? People can do whatever they want to do with language, doesn't mean it's the correct way to use it or that there aren't general rules to language... which can be broken. The difference is that we approach autism when someone (you) claims the way that follows the basic rules is the wrong way and the way which breaks them is the right way. And we enter the deepest autism when one claims that any other way is autistic because muh 'it looks le better this way xD' or 'I le can't le understand it the other le way xD'
I don't understand why some of you are angry about “A's”. The apostrophe avoids the confusion with a typographical mistake “as”. I find it quite pleasant, to be honest.
>>7318378
He said without using the “based” quotation marks.
>>7318638
No you don't approach autism. Not going to bother with the rest of your post.
>>7318648
Stellar damage control, friendo. Check this picture, I think it may help you deal with being a retard.
>>7318638
>Is that an equally correct spelling family
all judgements are ultimately arbitrary.
in the context of a classroom, "yer" would likely be marked incorrect in all but perhaps creative writing classes.
in the context of mocking an idiot on a nepalese poodle grooming forum, yer was best because I aimed to rustle yr jimmies.
>>7317804
Straight Ace.
>>7318454
>>7318467
btfo desu senpai
>>7318654
Here are the top five Google results for 'apostrophe single letter. One of them has an infographic that's almost hostile enough for /lit/:
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/55970/plurals-of-acronyms-letters-numbers-use-an-apostrophe-or-not
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25277/what-is-the-proper-way-to-write-the-plural-of-a-single-letter-another-apostrop
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/apostrophe.html
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/apostrophe
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/
All of them say you either can or should use an apostrophe here. (It's a little more strongly a Should if the letter is lowercase, but none say you should not use one in OP's uppercase case.)
>>7318738
I'm not advocating against the apostrophe use but three of those sources, particularly the Oxford English Dictionary, are well-known for being systematically against the traditional grammar and the normative rules. In years of existence, the latter's blog has never been in favor of a strict usage, ruling in favor of the preposition-starting sentences, the double negative and so on.
>>7318695
it's cute how you think you know what's going on
>>7318738
heh
>>7318772
>>7318772
>>7317804
the later looks like you are saying as so the first.
>>7318360
Suppose 'As' is at the start of a sentence. I am a proponent of the apostrophe for sure. Consider this sentence:
As are very important in school
A's are very important in school
Regardless of if you would word it differently (I would too) its still a possible sentence and so should have a correct form
>>7318250
It's the '60s axually.
>>7318256
And what would you say in place of it?
>The sixth decade of century 20
>>7319180
>implying the sixties was the sixth decade of the 20th Century
