The United States's singular nature

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
BTW, prior to the Amer Civil War, it was customary to say "The United States have" IE to treat it as a plural. After the Civil War, the usage as a singular became standard.

Drat...I wanted to say that.

[Victor Galis]

I was taught that singular noun possessives always had to have the 's even if this was ridiculous and led to situations where words ended in ss's, etc.

The United States' solution implies that The Unites States is a plural noun.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
My impression it less the gradually increasing power of the fed govt, and more the triumph of the concept of the US as one nation, rather than as a federation of sovereign states.

IIRC the first use of "United States" as singular was just after the civil war.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Wycoff
The thing that drives me crazy today is the usage of an apostrophe to show plurality. For example, people are starting to write "We have ten dog's" rather than "We have ten dogs."

I would say the apostrophe is not showing plurality, but is incorrectly inserted in a plural word.

I've seen it used with plurals of abbreviations, as in "We have ten CD's," but I still leave it out: "... ten CDs."

[Dauphin]

The ' in plurals of acronyms/abbreviations is wrong.

I would like to know where does the ' in contra'd comes from though. It seems unusual but also correct.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Dauphin
The ' in plurals of acronyms/abbreviations is wrong.

So you would say "... ten CD"?

I would like to know where does the ' in contra'd comes from though. It seems unusual but also correct.

Apostrophes can indicate letters left out. I haven't seen "contra'd" before - do you have a sentence?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon

So you would say "... ten CD"?

Ten CDs. No ' in there.

Apostrophes can indicate letters left out. I haven't seen "contra'd" before - do you have a sentence?

"The £10 debit to my account was an accident and the bank contra'd the entry the following day".

[Dauphin]

The only time I would use a ' in a plural is if talking about things such as letters. The letter there are several s's, u's and e's in this sentence. Just seems more natural and easier to understand.

[Kuciwalker]

"Contra" doesn't appear in the dictionary as a verb...

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
"Contra" doesn't appear in the dictionary as a verb...

It does in legal and financial documentation that I read regularly....

I'm not surprised it's not in the dictionary, it may be too parochial.

[Kidlicious]

What does it mean?

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
The obvious solution would be to refer to the USA as "America".

Says the man with the nickname Columbus.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Kidicious
What does it mean?

Contra? I thought you were an accountant? A contra is an entry made to nullify a previous entry. If two or more entries are contra'd against each other then they are each nullified.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Ten CDs. No ' in there.

Way back in school, I was taught to put the apostrophe when pluralizing letters or numbers: three 9's -- but I don't. I just looks wrong.

[Will9]

I was always taught that ' is only to be added to plural words that end in "s". Such as "rocket's engine." If it was a plual that didn't end in "s" you would add "'s". Such as "children's room." Any singular words that end in "s" are to have "'s" added.

On the United States being singular, well the United States is a single country (Shut up Tacc! ) so I would say that it is singular.