5

The school where I work has an S when it is an acronym (NEGS) it looks odd with an apostrophe to show ownership e.g. NEGS' tennis team...any thoughts?

HSmith
  • 61
  • Any more thoughts on why you feel it looks "odd"? – oerkelens Aug 11 '14 at 07:36
  • You could refer to it as "the NEGS tennis team". – Neil W Aug 11 '14 at 08:47
  • Just forget the possessive and use as a noun. –  Aug 19 '15 at 21:49
  • I would say forget the apostrophe-s, but refer to it as "the NEGS tennis team", so you'd say "Looking for new players for the NEGS tennis team" rather than "Looking for new players for NEGS tennis team" for example. This is the most natural-sounding way to describe it i think. – Max Williams Mar 31 '16 at 11:55

3 Answers3

4

A relevant question is Proper Apostrophe Usage with Initialisms: CCS' or CCS's?

The answer there would indicate that not only should there be an apostrophe, but it should be apostrophe-s as a possessive: "NEGS's tennis team"

However, in the case of an initialism like NEGS, where it can easily be [and probably is] pronounced as a word, the word ends in an s. That means it's probably pronunced as "negz tennis team" rather than "negzis tennis team", which means that apostrophe-s wouldn't be appropriate.

However, NEGS could be treated as an adjective/attributive noun. That is, it functions in exactly the same way as the simple word school in "school tennis team". In that case, you wouldn't need an apostrophe either.

Any position, no apostrophe, apostrophe, or apostrophe-s, is justifable. So: find one which looks good and reads correctly, and use it consistently.

Community
  • 1
Andrew Leach
  • 101,901
2

Rewrite to avoid the possessive, and hence the apostrophe. So, instead of referring to, as an example, the "NEGS' Equestrian team", write "the Equestrian team of NEGS".

brasshat
  • 4,329
2

Even in the case of an initialism, like NEGS, where it is pronounced as a word, the apostrophe-s would be appropriate since it is singular. The "s" is dropped only in the case of plural words ending in an "s", at least in traditional English.

user168101
  • 21
  • 1