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It may appear pedantic but "all of them received A minuses or As minus grade", does not appear to make sense.

If a subset of students received the same grade on their reports, then should the grade be pluralized?

Manish
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2 Answers2

3

I see nothing wrong with pluralizing A minus as A minuses, like any other word. In the abbreviated form, an apostrophe would be appropriate: A−'s.

Pitarou
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I would rephrase this as "They each received an A-."

Note: I originally said you could use "They all received an A-." Since the reason I tossed that out may be relevant, I'll explain why I changed it. To say "all" instead of "each" could mislead someone into thinking that the students received an A- as a group, rather than each of them individually earning an A-.

  • Not sure, but can we also say "they each received A minuses or As minus ." – weakphoneme Oct 07 '14 at 18:11
  • @Mou: then each of them received several grades. It doesn't have the same meaning :) – oerkelens Oct 07 '14 at 18:15
  • Please support your answer with sources. That makes your answer stronger, and more likely to be viewed as correct. Otherwise it's only opinion. – anongoodnurse Oct 07 '14 at 18:18
  • You'd like me to cite a source stating why it's good to rephrase sentences to avoid awkward structure? – Graph Theory Oct 07 '14 at 18:24
  • This answer, although helpful for learning English, does not answer the question, which asks for a plural form. – Drew Oct 08 '14 at 00:33
  • Except using a plural form in this fashion is cumbersome and will most likely confuse the reader. Therefore, I don't believe it should be suggested. If there's no graceful way to write a sentence as it is currently structured, a better structure should be sought instead of trying to force it. That being said, it is perhaps not my answer, but the question itself which belongs on ELL. The distinction is often difficult to make, especially when the person asking the question couldn't possibly know whether there is a rule that gives an answer: they wouldn't be asking otherwise. – Graph Theory Oct 08 '14 at 20:42