Talk:dos and don'ts

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do's and don'ts
It's "dos and don'ts", not "do's and don'ts"; the only cause for placing an apostrophe in-between a word and its plural form is disambiguation and – aside from the ill-advised nature of that practice at the best of times – in this context it's obvious that a multiple "do" is equivalent to a multiple "don't". If anything, adding one between "do" and the "s" adds ambiguity, as one then wonders why there isn't one between "don't" and its "s".


 * Actually, all three are used: do's and don'ts, do's and don't's, and dos and don'ts. The people that support each version have reasons why their version is the best and why the other two are wrong. All are right. The version do's and don'ts seems to be the most popular and is halfway between the two extremes of the other versions. —Stephen (Talk) 14:33, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

[Person who raised the point initially] Yes, I'm well aware that "do's and don'ts" is frequently used. Frequency of usage does not denote correct usage, and while I appreciate the rules of language are governed in part by commonality of usage, in this instance there is no satisfactory linguistic argument for defaulting to the least correct of three options. The page ought at least to indicate the alternate forms and that various respected sources (among them The Guardian, the OED and The Economist [whose style guide is sadly not online at the moment]) favour pluralising "do" without the erroneous apostrophe. Admittedly Yahoo! (and, currently, Wiktionary) favour the first word having an apostrophe, but there's no logic to it and it serves only to breed bad habits in those who don't already fully understand the various uses of apostrophes. [EDIT] Found The Economist ref:


 * No, there is no logic to pluralizing a verb with a simple s intended only for nouns. In fact, there is logic for all three, and problems with all three. If you want to indicate the alternate forms, you should do it. This is a wiki. Just don’t add anything like "this one is correct and that one is incorrect", or try to make a case for adopting the less popular OED version over other well established ones. We make room here for British spellings as well as American spellings, and we don’t promote one as being superior to the other. —Stephen (Talk) 16:10, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

The logic of pluralising the verb is that it's not a verb in the context of this compound: it's a noun, and therefore it requires an "s" to denote its plurality. The (only imaginable) logic of adding an apostrophe is that its pluralised form "dos" might be ambiguous: though quite how that's possible if it's followed by "don'ts" is anyone's guess. I'm certain it's not a case of British vs American usage (unfortunately more highbrow American style guides [NY Times / Chicago Manual of Style]) aren't available online): just correct usage vs misguided usage; I believe Wiktionary articles usually term such instances a "Common misspelling of..." Perhaps my time debating this would have been better spent learning to create or edit a page? Perhaps I will one day? Who knows.


 * Yes, it would have been better spent learning to edit a page. You’ll get nowhere with your rationalization that your favored spelling is the one and only correct spelling. —Stephen (Talk) 16:37, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Indeed! I've enjoyed our exchange Stephen, especially the distinct lack of evidence provided for your argument. You seem to have missed the linguistic elements that informed my "rationalization" and dictate my "favor"; or perhaps they passed you by, given that you can't tell a verb from a noun. I'll probably stick to a more traditionally sourced reference point for the time being.


 * At least the other two are internally consistent (extra apostrophes for both "do" and "don't" or for neither) Fugyoo 17:43, 10 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm not an expert nor a native speaker, but I don't agree. The apostrophe in do's is used to make clear the pronunciation [du: + z] = [du:z]. In don'ts this isn't necessary. I have a book called "The Oxford Guide to English Usage" (early 1980ies) which is kind of prescriptive, and it says that do's and don'ts is the correct form. I don't know if it's the most common form, though.Kolmiel (talk) 16:41, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I actually agree that "do's and don'ts" is probably the best looking, easiest to read, and most commonly used spelling (see this Ngram), despite "dos and don'ts" being more logical. --WikiTiki89 22:17, 18 March 2014 (UTC)