The Webmistress — Sat, 16 Jun 2001 08:47:43 +0000

I agree, FAQ = frequently asked questions & shouldn't be FAQs

TheGizmoid — Fri, 15 Jun 2001 21:57:06 +0000

Interesting stuff, holzi, thanks for sharing that!

Now, my understanding is that FAQ stands for "frequently asked questions", not "frequently asked question" so it's already plural and you would not use FAQs unless you had more than one FAQ on more than one topic, such a FAQ on this *and* a FAQ on that.

What's really sad to me is how many sites I see using "their" for "there", "it's" for "its", etc. I even see these types of mistakes on CNN sometimes.

Megan — Fri, 15 Jun 2001 15:36:44 +0000

Well, think of it this way. When you write it out you would do it like this:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
not Frequently Asked Question's (FAQ's)

My sister is doing her masters of Rhetoric and Technical Writing at Penn State so I could ask her if you still want an academic opinion. However, I think that the Chicago Manual of Style quoted in holzi's collection, as well as the other professional opinions in there should be enough.

FAQ's or FAQs?

holzi — Fri, 15 Jun 2001 15:25:17 +0000

I don't mean this as a personal attack, because a lot of people are leaving off the apostrophes on the plurals of acronyms, including Microsoft's Encarta and other publishing companies.

So I did some research.
I collected some interesting links and put them on a free website (in Germany).
Pardon the popup ads. That's the price you pay for a free website.
http://members.tripod.de/Top_Gun/faqs.htm
This is only the tip of the iceberg.

regards,
holzi

P's & Q's

tmuncy — Mon, 11 Jun 2001 17:47:41 +0000

This is actually the second time the use of apostrophes to make FAQ plural has come up. It is absolutely correct English grammar to use the apostrophe to make a single leter plural, as in. "I will watch my P's and Q's from now on". On the other hand it is absolutely not correct to say "This forum is going to the dog's". If you consider the Q in FAQ to be plural already, I suppose it is incorrect to add 's, but if you consider it to be singular and want to add an S, then you need the apostrophe. The only thing that I'm sure is wrong is FAQs or FAQS. I've seen FAQ, FAQ's, and FAQs, all in common usage. Are there any English Phd's (note the apostrophe) out there who can answer this FAQ with authority?

holzi — Mon, 11 Jun 2001 17:35:07 +0000

Ah... I hope I don't come across as being too picky, because this is a minor (but amusing) point for some,
for others it's a pet peave: