[Grammar] Example of the plural of decade?

It is no longer considered necessary or even correct to create the plural of years or decades or abbreviations with an apostrophe:

He wrote several novels during the 1930s.
There are fifteen PhDs on our faculty.
My sister and I have identical IQs.

http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/marks/apostrophe.htm
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I cannot give myself a example of the plural of decade. ("1930s" is a plural of year, but it is just a decade, not a plural of decade.)

Could you give me one? What do you think about it?

The writer of that sentence is talking about writing decades like this:

1930's :cross:

1930s :tick:

The forms above signify one decade, which consists of ten years (1930,1931,1932, etc). That's why the plural form is used.

jutfrank said:

The writer of that sentence is talking about writing decades like this:

1930's :cross:

1930s :tick:

The forms above signify one decade, which consists of ten years (1930,1931,1932, etc). That's why the plural form is used.

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Thanks. So I think this part of the sentence "... to create the plural of years or decades or abbreviations with an apostrophe" isn't so good.

a. the plural of years (OK) (For example, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s)
b. the plural of decades (?)('1930s's?)
c. the plural of abbreviations (OK) (For example, IQs and PhDs)

kadioguy said:

Thanks. So I think this part of the sentence "... to create the plural of years or decades or abbreviations with an apostrophe" isn't so good.

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The conclusion here is that the part of the sentence you're referring to was unsuccessful in its attempt to communicate to you the message it intended.

jutfrank said:

The conclusion here is that the part of the sentence you're referring to was unsuccessful in its attempt to communicate to you the message it intended.

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Having read this, I think I may have misunderstood something. I will read your post #2 again.

"the 1930s" is a decade, not a year.

In fact, I can't think of how it's possible to pluralize a year, unless you're talking about parallel timelines: "The Back To The Future trilogy includes depictions of two different 1985s."

jutfrank said:

The writer of that sentence is talking about writing decades like this:

1930's :cross:

1930s :tick:

The forms above signify one decade, which consists of ten years (1930,1931,1932, etc). That's why the plural form is used.

Click to expand...

Hi, jutfrank, I have read your post many times and thought about it a lot since then. Did you mean "1930s" meets the plural of years and a decade?

kadioguy said:

Hi, jutfrank, I have read your post many times and thought about it a lot since then. Did you mean "1930s" meets the plural of years and a decade?

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You may be giving this more thought than it merits. The 1930s is a shorter way to say the years from 1930 through 1939. We use the plural because we're talking about ten years.

There is only one "1930s" so the word itself isn't plural.

And with words, you can use the plural- the early decades of the last century, etc.

Sorry, I meant there is only one decade called "the 1930s". There are ten years that start with "nineteen thirty".

kadioguy said:

Hi, jutfrank, I have read your post many times and thought about it a lot since then. Did you mean "1930s" meets the plural of years and a decade?

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Right. There are ten years in a decade. The thirties are 1930, 1931, and so on. Since there are more than on year in the decade, we pluralize it: the thirties. One decade (singular) is ten years (plural).

I've seen it written both ways: 1930's and 1930s. If it's not a possessive (the 1930's most popular movie), then I like the second way better. An apostrophe doesn't add meaning or make anything more clear.

Charlie Bernstein said:

If it's not a possessive (the 1930's most popular movie)

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To add another dimension to this fun thread—if it's possessive, surely it should be the 1930s' most popular movie.