Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[NorikoK]

Hello, Teachers.

Should "s" at the end of a plural form of a caplitalized noun be capitalized?

Now, I wonder
whether a plural form of the word "FIG" (a shortened form of FIGURE) is "FIGs" or "FIGS".

I find the following case on Internet:
a plural form of GAAP (an abbreviation of "Generally Accepted Accounting Principle") is GAAPs.


Is there any difference between a capitalized noun which is made by first few letters of an original word and a capitalized noun which is an abbreviation of a few words?
Please let me know if there is any rule.

Thank you for your time and help.

Noriko

[Anuradha Chepur]

The plural marker would be in the lower case.

Generally, it is not necesary to put an abbreviation formed by the first few letters in all upper case. You can write Fig. in a sentence initial position and fig. elsewhere.

An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the several words is usually written in all capitals: USA, UNO, UK etc.
Some acronyms are optionally written with just the first letter in capital: UNICEF/Unicef.

[NorikoK]

Thank you for your answer.

> The plural marker would be in the lower case.

So, except for a sentence written in all upper case, a plural marker "s" of a capitalized noun is generally written in lower case, like "as shown in FIGs. 1 and 3".

But, writing in upper case like "as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3" is also acceptable.

Is it right?

Noriko

[Anuradha Chepur]

The plural marker would be in the lower case, even if you are writing the abbreviation in all capitals. However, for a plain word such as figure it is not necessary to put it in all caps.