Referencing letters of the alphabet.

[Aeixious]

So lets say I have



Corey stared at the book. Some parts of it were in English; however, some parts of it were in an indecipherable language known as engineerese. The upside-down “e”s and squiggly lines assaulted his tired eyes.

How do I do this? es? ees? 'e's? "e"s? Imagine 5th letter of the alphabet here?

[mammamaia]

you'd do it just the way you did it in the excerpt...

[Jonesy]

I personally would only use a single '. Though I have no backing to this, it just seems more natural to me.

The upside-down 'e's and squiggly lines assaulted his tired eyes.

[luumu]

I generally use " when it stands alone without the apostrophe "s".
If it does require an apostrophe I just drop the quotation marks and add it.

[mammamaia]

I personally would only use a single '. Though I have no backing to this, it just seems more natural to me.

The upside-down 'e's and squiggly lines assaulted his tired eyes.

that would only be correct in british usage... in the us, it has to be " "... ' ' are only used for quotes within quotes...

[Cogito]

If it does require an apostrophe I just drop the quotation marks and add it.First see mammamaia's note above.

But next, be clear on why an apostophe might be required. It is neither required nor correst to use an apostrophe followed by an "s" to form a plural:
A row of X's across the page... WRONG!
A row of "X"s across the page... CORRECT albeit ugly.
An apostrophe would most likely only be needed if you were using a possessive to indicate some property of the letter, but I suspect it would nearly always be better to express the property without using the possessive form.

[mammamaia]

actually, it's correct to use an apostrophe to form plural of letters and numbers when they're not enclosed in " "... such as:

learn your ABC's
mind your p's and q's
it happened back in the 1930's
he's in his 20's

[lynneandlynn]

that would only be correct in british usage... in the us, it has to be " "... ' ' are only used for quotes within quotes...

This is slightly off topic, but I just wanted to say that I do use the ' ' properly when it comes to writing quotes within quotes, but I also try to use the ' ' to show that I'm giving my version of someone else's writing rather than putting that in full quotation marks (that's only really done when I critique someone else's work though.

As for the e's, I'd think it be appropriate to do it either e's, or "e"s, but I personally would just leave off the quotation marks altogether.

[mammamaia]

but I also try to use the ' ' to show that I'm giving my version of someone else's writing rather than putting that in full quotation marks (that's only really done when I critique someone else's work though

...if they know that's what you're doing, i see no harm in it, but if you did that in writing you intend to submit, it wouldn't make any sense...

[lynneandlynn]

No I only do that in posts on forums :) Not in writing that is going to be reviewed seriously.


~Lynn

[StrixVaria]

actually, it's correct to use an apostrophe to form plural of letters and numbers when they're not enclosed in " "

While this is true, it's only because so many people have done it over time, and if you want to be true to the normal rules of the language, it's still not proper. It's devolved over time to the point of ambiguity, and it's still better not to use the apostrophe for clarity's sake.

[mammamaia]

i actually don't use it unless it's needed to be clear, as i can't ignore the fact that the thing isn't a possessive and being a virgo, it annoys the bleep outa me...

[Cogito]

I didn't thank you earlier for the correction, but I do appreciate it, Maia. Any day I learn something is a good one. I did research it after you corrected me, and you are (as usual) correct.

But it is an annoying quirk of ignorance becoming canon. How long until the "greengrocer's apostrophe" becomes proper English punctuation as well?

[mammamaia]

i can't bear to imagine such a day, dear cog! [picture maia cowering under her desk, babbling, 'no apostrophe, no apostrophe, NO apostrophe!']