More on Apostrophes

Hi Kids,

Did you have a good winter holiday? Our family had a chance to visit Taiwan, and it was quite wonderful.

Back at home, I seem to be ironing every day. Lots of people, lots of clothes, ergo… lots of ironing. I don’t mind it, though. I really don’t. I find it to be a quiet and meditative activity. That is, if I’m in the mood for quiet and meditation. Sometimes I like to crank up the music.

Recently, I’ve been listening to music from the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Sixties music has got to be my favourite, by far. Seventies music sometimes gives me a headache. And the fifties, well, sometimes it’s just too sedate.

Today I would like to teach you about referring to numbers, and how you don’t need an apostrophe. Not where you think you do, at any rate.

I like music from the '60s.

She listens to '50s music.

They love '80s bands.

Remember what an apostrophe is for? If it’s not possessive, then it’s for a contraction.

'60s is short for 1960s

'50s is short for 1950s

'70s is short for 1970s

You might have seen things like this written up:

The 90’s

The 80’s

The 70’s

That apostrophe doesn’t belong there. Think of the words if you were to spell them out: nineties, eighties, seventies. When you change them to numbers, you don’t randomly add an apostrophe.

Same goes with the following: the nineteen sixties, the nineteen forties, the eighteen twenties, etc.

The 1960s

The 1940s

The 1820s

And then there are words like CD, DVD, and MC. You know what they stand for, right? Compact Disc, Digital Versatile Disc, and Master of Ceremonies. If you didn’t know, you just got a little bit more knowledgeable.

Anyways, when people write, they tend to write CD rather than Compact Disc, or more often, CDs instead of Compact Discs.

So please do me a favour, and write CDs, and not CD’s, unless you want to give me a headache.

The only time CD’s would be correct, would be as a possessive or a contraction, as in: the CD’s cover is missing (meaning the cover of the CD is missing) or this CD’s really ugly (meaning this CD is really ugly).

And please note, that it is CDs, not CDS. CD is uppercase because it is an abbreviation, and then you tack on a lowercase ‘s’ to denote plural. Easy as pie.

So, naturally the same follows for DVDs, MCs, and similar abbreviations.

Please go out into the world and spell properly. You’ll do me proud.

Know someone who would appreciate reading these blogs? Spread the good word, my friends, spread the word.

Perfectly Write Kids thanks you.