Plurals

Plural means more than one and are usually made with the addition of "s" but in transcription there are certain guidelines to be followed.

When making plurals of upper cased abbreviations, lower cased 's' is added without apostrophe.

For example: WBCs, EKGs

The same is not true for lower cased abbreviations. Here an apostrophe is followed by lower cased 's.'

For example: rbc's

In case of brief forms, 's' is used without an apostrophe.

For example:
exams
labs
segs
monos

In case of numbers, plurals are made by adding 's' only without any apostrophe, except in case of single digit number where apostrophe and 's' are used.

For example:
His pain scores were mostly 5's and 7's out of 10 on exam.
His mother died in her 60s.

However, no ‘s’ is used when making the plural of units of measure. Their singular and plural forms are the same. Therefore, 20 mgs is wrong.

For example:

The incision was 10 cm long and not 10 cms long.

Plural of eponyms is made by adding 's' without apostrophe.

For example: Tinels were positive bilaterally.

Exceptions: Some words like biceps, triceps, forceps, series are always used in this same form whether singular or plural.

For more examples and information, please refer to the English section.