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My question is similar to "Dollars' worth" vs. "dollars worth" for numerals but for numerals that are followed by a currency abbreviation.

When it's spelled out, it's clear that the "worth of" construction uses a possessive: "It uses 100 dollars' worth of electronics."

But when "dollars" is replaced by a currency code like USD, I'm not sure how to properly form a possessive on the phrase "100 USD."

All of these look incorrect or strange to me in a "worth of" context. Which is correct?

  • 100 USD' worth of electronics — since the D stands for "dollars" here, maybe, but looks like a typo since there's no visible 's'
  • 100 USDs' worth of electronics — doesn't seem correct unless you're pronouncing "ewe ess dees" out loud (but I would normally say something like "100 American/US dollars' worth," "100 dollars' (US) worth," "100 dollars worth (US)" instead); it's not normally written "USDs"
  • 100 USD worth of electronics — best bet?

…or something else I hadn't considered?

Kev
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  • *USD* United States Dollar is a conventional acronym used, especially in finance to refer to American dollars. *AUD, for instance refers to Australian dollars, NZD* New Zeland dollar etc. – user 66974 Jun 04 '20 at 08:35
  • Agastya's tomb is Anandapadmanabha temple, the richest temple in India with *10,000 billion USD worth* gold precious, stones and jewellery. https://books.google.it/books?id=XOTjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=%22usd+worth%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7qKWd4efpAhXOCewKHU3zCmQQ6AEIZjAJ#v=onepage&q=%22usd%20worth%22&f=false – user 66974 Jun 04 '20 at 08:39
  • VIETNAM TO MARK OFF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY The Ministry of Industry has called for almost *416 trillion VND ( 26 billion USD ) worth* of investment to finance the development of key industries in the country . https://books.google.it/books?id=Dl1uAAAAMAAJ&q=%22usd+worth%22&dq=%22usd+worth%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7qKWd4efpAhXOCewKHU3zCmQQ6AEIWjAH – user 66974 Jun 04 '20 at 08:40
  • Despite the fact that man has gained economic profit from the widespread use of *millions or billions USD worth* of chemical insecticides every year. https://books.google.it/books?id=liFcxaMK2nsC&pg=PA65&dq=%22usd+worth%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2l-3u4efpAhUIqaQKHXEmBm84ChDoATABegQIARAK#v=onepage&q=%22usd%20worth%22&f=false – user 66974 Jun 04 '20 at 08:42
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    @user121863 I find your examples interesting, especially because one is missing the "of" after "worth," which seems incorrect. Anyway, feel free to post an actual answer! :) – Kev Jun 04 '20 at 10:38
  • Note that, for example, *US$100* (worth) is another common styling for the same expression. – Jason Bassford Jun 04 '20 at 15:26
  • @JasonBassford That's news to me. Is it possible we're conflating two different types here? I only mean the construction "X worth of Y," but I realize I didn't spell that out, because I had assumed it was the only one. (@user121863's odd example still seems to be the "of" construction, just missing the "of" itself.) – Kev Jun 05 '20 at 05:52
  • @Kev 100 USD uses a 3-letter code as determined by the International Organization for Standardization. US$100 is much more common in nontechnical and informal use. Regardless of which style you use, they can both be followed by *worth of [something]*. I had just meant to point out that while 100 USD is still correct, it's not as commonly used outside of particular formal or scientific contexts. – Jason Bassford Jun 05 '20 at 06:41
  • @JasonBassford The part that's weird there is there's no apostrophe indicating a possessive, unlike when it's spelled out with the word "dollars": "100 dollars' worth of [something]." – Kev Jun 05 '20 at 12:20
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    @Kev That's because the possessive is inherent in the particular use of the term. It's like knowing that PIN stands for personal information number, even though you use the short term as its own grammatical unit. In this case, the pronunciation is also part of the term itself. When you see 100 USD you say "one-hundred US dollars." When you see 100 USD worth, you say "one-hundred US dollars' worth." But you can't pronounce the presence of lack of an apostrophe, so what would be written, if it weren't just spoken, is assumed. In short, no possessive is actually written with the term. – Jason Bassford Jun 05 '20 at 13:03
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    This is a great example of a well-written question, by the way. De-duplication of questions, plenty of examples, a clear question, and an inquisitive attitude. Kudos to you. – Eric Hauenstein Jun 05 '20 at 13:25
  • @user 66974 As USD is 'spelled out' (contrast UNICEF, which is pronounced as a word) the default stance taken by most dictionaries nowadays is that it is an initialism rather than an acronym. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 21 '22 at 14:21

1 Answers1

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No possessive

I think it looks best without the possessive, and that matches a few examples I found online:

  • UNICEF delivers 5 million USD worth of supplies for COVID-19 response in South Sudan. — UNICEF

  • If you just want to count the value of notes and coins, there are about U.S. $2.1 trillion worth of notes and coins floating around the globe — How Stuff Works

Alternatively, avoid the issue by rewording: "supplies worth 5 million USD" (UNICEF).

Laurel
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  • Agreed. The dropping of the apostrophe in such cases is becoming more standard. I haven't checked on a nine day/s/s' wonder recently. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 21 '22 at 14:19