Apostrophes with Underlined or Italicized Items
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- Nadrzędna kategoria: Grammar Slammer
- Kategoria: Apostrophes
Letters, numbers, symbols, and words used as themselves are italicized or underlined. See Underlining or Italicizing Items that Name Themselves for more on this.
When these items are made plural, the plural is shown by adding apostrophe s to the underlined or italicized item. The apostrophe and s are not italicized or underlined.
Acronyms are also made plural by adding apostrophe s. Some authorities do not recognize this rule.
These two instances are the only times in English when adding an apostrophe plus s makes something plural.
Examples: Don't forget to dot your i's.
(Letter as a letter)His 7's look like 2's.
(Number as number)His &'s look like 8's.
(Symbol as symbol)I find the thee's and thou's in older writing hard to follow.
(Words as words)