Comments on: Syntax: VLANs or VLAN’s ?

By: Dan Hughes

Dan Hughes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:30:58 +0000

There are 15 VLANs on the switch. You should check the VLAN’s spanning tree configuration..

By: adama

adama — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:54:00 +0000

VLAN’s is technically correct when referring to multiples, as initialisms (VLAN is an initialism) were originally pluralized with an apostrophe. This was when intialisms were largely written with periods such as V.L.A.N.’s.

However, now that it’s more common to omit the periods (atleast in British English), it’s now also more common to pluralize these as ordinary English nouns, without an apostrophe.

IPv6Freely’s argument leans in the correct direction, but isn’t 100% accurate. +0.5

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:12:19 +0000

+1 for IPv6Freely’s argument.

By: Angel Castaneda

Angel Castaneda — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:03:31 +0000

My grammar senses were tingling, but I’m glad to see that IPv6Freely set the record straight.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:33:05 +0000

I agree with IPv6Freely…. Not posessive, so no apostrophe.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:23:19 +0000

By: IPv6Freely

IPv6Freely — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:21:46 +0000

It’s simple grammar. VLAN’s is not valid because it is not possessive. Remember, apostrophes replace vowels. VLANS is not valid because the S is not part of the acronym and therefore should not be capatalized. Finally, VLANs is correct because if you spell out the acronym, you would get “Virtual Local Area Networks”. Not “Virtual Local Area Network’s”, or “Virtual Local Area NetworkS”.

It should be noted of course that VLAN’s would be appropriate in some usage, such as if you were to say “That particular VLAN’s number is 100″, because that would then expand to “That particular Virtual Local Area Network’s number is 100.”

Grammar 101.