To apostrophe or not to apostrophe, that is the question

October 25, 2019 5:56 AM

The missus hit me with a question this morning on the correct use of apostrophes. After mulling over my answer, I'm not sure if I was entirely correct, so I now lean on the brave copy editors of the hivemind.

In the flyer she is helping edit, there are quite a few uses of apostrophes that, while pretty common to see nowadays, I'm not sure they are whichever-stylebook-correct.

One that I struggled with is the phrase "cross your Ts and dot your Is" In the flyer, the plurals of T and I are spelled T's and I's. Is that correct? My gut says this is the classic Grocer's Apostrophe" and should not be used, but then the I ends up visually reading as the word "is".

There are also various acronyms that I think I am on firmer ground with. For instance, the flyer has the plural for UTI spelled UTI's. I feel like it should simply be UTIs. Yes?

Many thanks!

posted by Thorzdad to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

I was always taught that you use the apostrophe when pluralizing acronyms / abbreviations, which seems to be generally still the rule -- but the shift since I was in school is that all-cap acronyms are now mostly pluralized without it.

So on that point UTIs is correct, but (e.g.) PhD's would be correct.

To me, both Ts and T's look wrong, so I'd probably find a way to write around that.
posted by uberchet at 6:06 AM on October 25, 2019

This is a line I use when introducing people to my company's house style:
There is no "right" and "wrong" in language. There is "communication" and "confusion".

So ask yourself, what's potentially confusing here? "Is" is potentially confusing. That's why the apostrophe is helpful, because it makes it more obvious at first glance that you're saying "the plural of the letter pronounced 'eye'" rather than "the present-tense singular of 'to be'". And for consistency, that means "Ts" needs one too.

Go with the apostrophes.
posted by Etrigan at 6:06 AM on October 25, 2019 [16 favorites]

It's a matter of preference. Generally, as in 'Mind your Ps and Qs', there's no apostrophe. But it's certainly OK to make an exception for letters where confusion with a two-letter word is possible (Is, As, Us).

If it were me, I'd just say Ts and Is. Confusion is unlikely.
posted by pipeski at 6:07 AM on October 25, 2019

Best answer: Different style guides will have different things to say about this. Chicago Manual of Style says UTIs but cross your T's and dot your I's.
posted by Jeanne at 6:08 AM on October 25, 2019 [13 favorites]

Apostrophes are the wrong tool for the job. Use quotes.

...cross your ’T’s and dot your ’I’s....
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:12 AM on October 25, 2019 [10 favorites]

Best answer: AP style guide agrees with Chicago in this case... single letters use 's for clarity -- Dot your I's and cross your T's. For multiple letters (UTIs) there is no apostrophe.
posted by somanyamys at 6:13 AM on October 25, 2019 [11 favorites]

Tangential: does it even make sense to advise dotting a capital I?
posted by jon1270 at 6:14 AM on October 25, 2019 [18 favorites]

I think this is a classic case of prescriptivism (“the rule says no!”) vs descriptivism (“but everybody does it now, so it’s ok!”). Prescriptivism is useful to ensure that everyone is following the same rules, and often serves as a social signal and class marker that an author knows those rules. However, it’s impossible to avoid the inevitable evolution of English, and using all the rules all the time makes for a stilted and difficult style of communication. As a prescriptive rule is broken down by common use (like the use of “data” as a singular - “this data” instead of “these data”), you’ll start to see divergence in the rule books, with the less conservative and stringent style guides surrendering and the more extreme ones holding out.

Apostrophe for plural (abbreviations / acronyms / individual letters and words) seems to be going this way. Given that there is no one single rule any longer, there isn’t really a bright “prescriptivist vs descriptivist” line any more. Just “some prescriptivists vs all descriptivists and some of the other prescriptivists”.

So I say, go with your heart - or rather, go with what’s easiest for your readers. Here’s a good, common-sense guide for the particular question.

If the worst comes to the worst, just tell anybody complaining that it’s British English.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 6:18 AM on October 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

I do not use apostrophes for plural acronyms or initialisations unless it would take an 's' for pluralisation/possessive (children's games) or using it would make comprehension clearer, which is partially Guardian house style (which is what my first boss used) and partially just the practical result of writing documentation for wider use.

So I would use 'cross the T's' but not UTI's.

However, I do write in UK style English so YMMV!
posted by halcyonday at 6:20 AM on October 25, 2019

I write technical docs, which include many abbreviations and acronyms. I agree with you in that "UTIs" is preferred.

When there seems to be no good option, I try to rephrase to avoid using apostrophes, such as "make sure to cross each t and dot each i" (or use another phrase altogether). YMMV...
posted by methroach at 6:31 AM on October 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

Since capital T's and I's don't need crossing or dotting, they ought to be lower case in this situation. (in the previous sentence, they are capitals because they're capitals.)

So, "cross your t's and dot your i's" works, both for the Chicago Style codified reason above, and for the communication/confusion reason above.

Personally, since both ways are either misleading or confusing, maybe "dot your ayes and cross your tees"?
posted by notsnot at 6:32 AM on October 25, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks, all. Since the both Chicago and AP agree, I will follow their guidance.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:42 AM on October 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'd rewrite to avoid the whole mess, something like "cross every t and dot every i" or similar. But I'm one of those who hate-hate-HATE seeing apostrophes used in cases like this, whether or not it's allowed by manuals of style.

(And as a type designer, I'd go with lowercase for this phrase. Only the lowercase t has a crossbar; it's just a bar on the uppercase T. And only the lowercase i takes a tittle/dot.)
posted by themissy at 9:16 AM on October 25, 2019 [2 favorites]