Talking about letters

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 5, 2007

Is there a grammatically correct way to discuss letters?

Like:

"Ass." She said it under her breath, but S's carry even when you whisper.

If S (or any letter) is plural, should it be S's or Ses or Ss? Visually, I like the apostrophe, but does that confuse someone to think it's possessive?

Jamesaritchie · Mar 5, 2007

Letter

Good question, but I'm not sure what the convention is. I always spell out the letters, but that may just be me.

CaroGirl · Mar 5, 2007

My understanding is that you use an apostrophe with the letter to avoid confusion. No one's going to think you mean it to be possessive when you say, "I got four A's on my report card."

Interestingly, in the example you cite, there is a word representation for the letter, namely "ess," so you can say esses instead of S's (however, I think either one is correct).

And that's my 2c.

jthome1223 · Mar 5, 2007

I agree with CaroGirl. In this instance, I would imagine the "S's" would be italicized to further clarify what you're trying to say.

Raphee · Mar 5, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
"Ass." She said it under her breath, but S's carry even when you whisper.

As a suggestion as well as a question would it be a good idea to write this as:

"Ass." She said it under her breath, but a 's' carries even when you whisper.

Solatium · Mar 6, 2007

Raphee said:
"Ass." She said it under her breath, but a 's' carries even when you whisper.

As a question (no suggestion implied): mightn't that work better as "an 's'"?

alleycat · Mar 6, 2007

An apostrophe is used for the plural of letters. It's a standard convention as far as I know.

Maryn · Mar 6, 2007

While ess and esses might be correct, the one that reads best to me is S's.

I remember reading and rereading a paragraph in a Matt Helm book (talk about dating myself, huh?) in which the characters were joking around concerning gee. All I could read it as was the expression, a la "gee whiz," and I just didn't get it. Then when they characters moved on to aitch a few paragraphs later, a light went on above my head.

Spelling out a letter phonetically, especially when there's any potential for confusion, rankles to this day, even if it is technically correct.

Maryn, old and crotchety

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 6, 2007

Raphee said:
As a suggestion as well as a question would it be a good idea to write this as:

"Ass." She said it under her breath, but a 's' carries even when you whisper.

I guess, but ass has two esses.

moth · Mar 6, 2007

Unless specifically having the letter S in there is necessary, maybe you could skirt the whole issue: "Ass." She said it under her breath, but sibilants carry even when you whisper.

Just a thought...

Jamesaritchie · Mar 6, 2007

Maryn said:
While ess and esses might be correct, the one that reads best to me is S's.

I remember reading and rereading a paragraph in a Matt Helm book (talk about dating myself, huh?) in which the characters were joking around concerning gee. All I could read it as was the expression, a la "gee whiz," and I just didn't get it. Then when they characters moved on to aitch a few paragraphs later, a light went on above my head.

Spelling out a letter phonetically, especially when there's any potential for confusion, rankles to this day, even if it is technically correct.

Maryn, old and crotchety

Letters should not be spelled phonetically. Every letter has a proper spelling, and it's always best to use this spelling. The proper spelling for the letter "G" is jee.

In fiction, however, I suspect it's best to go with whatever style gives the reader the quickest, easiest understanding. I spell out the letters whenever possible, assuming my readers will know enough to figure it out, but sometimes using the actual letters just works better.

ErylRavenwell · Mar 8, 2007

First of all, "ess" is a word, plural, "esses". In the diminutive form, the plural of s is s's, the first of the two esses, separated by the apostrophe, is not capitalised.

Reference: Longman.

Talking about letters

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Jamesaritchie

CaroGirl

Living the dream

jthome1223

Raphee

In debt to AW

Solatium

alleycat

Still around

Maryn

I Tried

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

moth

my own two hands

Jamesaritchie

ErylRavenwell