Talk:straight A

Hi. The noun form doesn't need to be an entry as "A" is the noun, and it doesn't really matter that if you add the adjective "straight" (and pluralise it) it becomes a compound; there are billions of similar cases that don't warrant individual entries. One might just as well include an entry for "purple chairs".

The adjective form, on the other hand, ought to be hyphenated as it's a basic adjective+noun compound, which - according to the Chicago Manual of Style and Wikipedia, among others - needs hyphenating. It's especially pertinent in this case due to the ambiguous nature of lone capitalised letters.

I tried to edit some time ago but couldn't work out how, and my part-changes were reverted.

Tallyho! AV


 * The noun form certainly needs an entry and in fact it needs to be elaborated upon (etymology, etc). Unlike "purple chairs" which is formed by a regular process (e.g. you can have blue chairs, red chairs, ..., and also purple tables, purple desks, purple bicycles...), it is not at all clear what "straight A" means or how it came about. For example: can there be curved 'A's, tilted 'A's, crooked 'A's and so on, and can there be straight 'B's, straight 'C's too? Or simply: is using "straight s" to mean "consistent s" a productive process; are there other phrases like it? Just how did this phrase come about, when did it become idiomatic? (It seems to be an Americanism.) And Merriam-Webster too includes the adjective in their unabridged dictionary, again without explanation. Shreevatsa (talk) 18:48, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

RFC discussion: December 2011–May 2017
Noun doesn't match headword. (Does the singular even exist?) Equinox ◑ 23:03, 21 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Well the adjective form has to be "straight A", but I don't think the singular exists for the noun form. I don't know what the policy is in cases like this. Leonxlin 23:06, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Attributive use of 'Straight A's'? Mglovesfun (talk) 23:08, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Furthermore, the adjective form of this compound ought to hyphenated as "straight-A" as it's a standard adjective-noun composition; and the pluralisation of the noun form commonly wouldn't include an apostrophe as there's no disambiguation required with "straight As" (assuming the "s" is uncapitalised, which it ought to be).


 * Looks fine now --Celui qui crée ébauches de football anglais (talk) 10:12, 23 May 2017 (UTC)