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Acronyms and Redundancy

Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 7:43 AM Category: Meryl's Notes Blog 2 comments

The writer wrote Is the King’s English dead? as a reader wrote saying “PIN number” makes “number” redundant as PIN means personal identification number.

I remember writing an article and pausing a minute trying to decide whether or not to add a redundant word (I don’t remember what it was). In some cases, a phrase doesn’t sound right without the redundant word and in others, it does. Writing, “Check your PIN” sounds fine. I don’t feel the need to add “number.”

What about the plural of FAQ? Or is “FAQ” always plural? After all, what’s the point of listing ferquently asked questions if you just have one? Sometimes I feel the urge to add an “s” to make it “FAQs.” It depends on how I write the sentence.

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2 comments

Posted by bruce on October 17th, 2006, 6:47 PM
I believe that FAQs would be used if you are talking about multiple FAQ lists. FAQ would refer to one list. That’s how I see it.
Posted by dvg on October 25th, 2006, 10:58 AM
Few things are more annoying than the multitude of “ATM Machine” signs I see around Los Angeles.

Automatic Teller Machine Machine.