Chicago Style Workout 19: Plurals

/ September 26, 2017

Heads Up!

This month’s workout, “Plurals,” centers on CMOS 17, paragraphs 7.5–15. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study that section of the Manual before answering.

(Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Note: Style guides and dictionaries sometimes disagree. This quiz is designed to test your knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 19: Plurals

1. Where Webster’s gives two forms of the plural—whether as primary and secondary variants, like zeros and zeroes, or as equal variants, like millennia and millenniums—Chicago normally opts for the first.
a.
b.
2. Chicago style avoids tricky plurals, preferring to put the s on the end of the last word regardless {father-in-laws} {court-martials} {coup d’états}.
a.
b.
3. Capital letters used as words, numerals used as nouns, and abbreviations form the plural by adding s unless they themselves end in s, in which case the plural requires es.

{IRAs} {URLs} {BSes, MAs, PhDs}
a.
b.
4. The plural endings to italicized words in another language should also be set in italics {Blume, Blumen} {cheval, chevaux} {señor, señores}.
a.
b.
5. To aid comprehension, lowercase letters form the plural with an apostrophe and an s {two a’s in llama}.
a.
b.
6. Chicago style or not?

{popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century}
a.
b.
7. Chicago style or not?

{popular from the twentieth to the twenty-first century}
a.
b.
8. Chicago style or not?

Names ending in an unpronounced s or x are best left in the singular form {the seventeen Louis of France} {the two Dumas, father and son} {three Margaux} but {two Felixes}.
a.
b.
9. Chicago style or not?

How many more “To be continueds” can we expect?
a.
b.
10. Chicago style or not?

{ifs and buts} {dos and don’ts} {yeses and nos} 
a.
b.

 

Photo: Courtesy CDC/Amanda Mills, acquired from Public Health Image Library.

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