why do people insist on making RPM plural?

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
I agree it's kind of silly when you think about it.. but when you say:

"OMG i was driving fast and the RPM just stopped and the engine quit"

it looks odd..... heh

It looks odd because you said "The RPM just stopped". You would be more likely to say "The RPM dropped".

 

[Mark R]

It's lazy pluralisation as is becoming more common.

E.g. people may say "court-martials" when they really mean "courts-martial", or "trade unions" instead of "trades unions".

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Walleye
Revolutions Per Minute


the pluralization is already included! it's not supposed to be revolutions per minutes! :|

argh!

must be the same people who insist on calling the itbs the itbs test.

(iowa test of basic skills.......................test :|)

OK then, how would you denote a single revolution per minute? 1 R(-s)PM? Or what about fractional values? "RPM" can be either singular or plural.

ZV

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
For the same reason people say "The HMS blahblah was a good ship."

Actually, "HMS" is part of the proper name of a ship.

ZV

 

[WobbleWobble]

VIN number
ATM machine
PIN number
NT technology

If you don't duplicate the last word, the message doesn't get across as clearly. I don't think it has anything to do with English skills. I blame it more on different groups using more and more acronyms which the general population may not get right away.

For example, Windows 2000 is built in NT.
What's NT?

Windows 2000 is built on NT technology.
Good technology!

Stupid example, but you get my point.

 

[crab]

To piss people like you off.

 

[petery83]

sometimes i've heard "knots per hour" when in fact a knot is a unit = one nautical mile per hour

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: CraigRT
I agree it's kind of silly when you think about it.. but when you say:

"OMG i was driving fast and the RPM just stopped and the engine quit"

it looks odd..... heh

It looks odd because you said "The RPM just stopped". You would be more likely to say "The RPM dropped".

well i was more making a sentence of what someone who didn't know how to use the term, might say... if you know what i mean....

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Revolutions Per Minute.

1 RPM
2 RPMs

 

[Colt45]

I don't even usually say RPM. its assumed.


ie. "for some strange reason my car was idling at 2 grand yesterday".

 

[CubicZirconia]

People do the same thing with RBI (s).

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
People do the same thing with RBI (s).

That's because it denotes the plurality of the first word, like I noted above with RPMs.

 

[DamnDirtyApe]

Well, the plural of RBI should really be R's BI...

English must be the most poorly-spoken language in the world - both native speakers and and non-native speakers have difficulty using the language correctly!

 

[PatboyX]

it would be ten times more annoying if everyone just used a lot of abbriviations to make conversations (as demontrated with the ATM machine/PIN number example)

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: DamnDirtyApe

English must be the most poorly-spoken language in the world - both native speakers and and non-native speakers have difficulty using the language correctly!

I concur. I remember my English teacher telling us how horrible of a language it is

You can get "fish" from "ghotib"... messed up language.

 

[Pepsi90919]

technically it's:

(RPM)'s

as in you're using the whole "RPM" unit in a plural form, not just the M part.

 

[Jeff7181]

People will continue to say it however they want irregardless of whether it's correct or not

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
technically it's:

(RPM)'s

as in you're using the whole "RPM" unit in a plural form, not just the M part.

think about it.

revolution's's per minute's.

that's not descriptive of anything.

 

[Mermaidman]

You mean people should say, for example, "3000 arse-P-M?" (3000 RsPM)

Many folks say and type "data is . . . " instead of "data are . . . " but I don't hold it against you.

 

[alkemyst]

ahhh what a cute little nerd.

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman
You mean people should say, for example, "3000 arse-P-M?" (3000 RsPM)

Many folks say and type "data is . . . " instead of "data are . . . " but I don't hold it against you.

no, i'm saying the plurality is already included in the R. so the s at the end is not necessary.

 

[WobbleWobble]

By being an acronym, my thoughts are that RPM can be both singular and plural.

1 RPM (rotation per minute) or 2 RPM (rotations per minute)

By adding the 's' into RPMs, you can be justified by using the singular form and turning it into a plural form.

 

[Howard]

Walleye, stop hating. Your grasp of the English language is imperfect anyway.

 

[boyRacer]

RPMs.

 

[atom]

Originally posted by: Walleye

Originally posted by: Mermaidman
You mean people should say, for example, "3000 arse-P-M?" (3000 RsPM)

Many folks say and type "data is . . . " instead of "data are . . . " but I don't hold it against you.

no, i'm saying the plurality is already included in the R. so the s at the end is not necessary.

They could be referring to a plurality of that plurality. Such as, " Joe Bob's truck was idling at 2000 RPM. Billy Bob's car was idling at 3000 RPM. The cars' RPM's [or (RPM)'s or however you want to write it] were unusually high."

Or is that the way you would write it? Damn Engrish............