Learn English – Quantity for abbreviations of plural terms

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I have two questions which I think are so closely related that they should be grouped together.

Quantity for an abbreviation that stands for a plural

Context: The author is trying to explain what open market operations (OMO). The term "open market operation" is meaningless in the context, it is always a group of operations.

Which of the following sentences is grammatically more correct?

OMO refer to the buying or selling……….

or,

OMO refers to the buying or selling………

The second one is what I found in print. But I think it should be the first one.

Abbreviations that stand for the singular

Do I need to pluralize an abbreviation if it stands for the singular form?

5 kg. costs about €10.

or,

5 kg. cost about €10.

or,

5 kgs. cost about €10.

P.S.:- Please do let me know if the context is insufficient for the first one. Does the context even matter in such cases?

Best Answer

For the first part of your question, I would treat OMO as singular because I'd be referring to a single concept represented by that abbreviation:

  • "OMO refers to the buying or selling..."

If you were writing about a number of OMOs, then I'd use this:

  • "OMOs refer to the buying or selling..."

For the second part of your question, the first and third options are both correct, but the first is usually more appropriate instances (I also suggest changing "about" to "approximately" {or abbreviate to "approx"})...

In the scenario where I was selling 5 kg. packages of something, I prefer "5 kg. costs approximately €10."

To elaborate further, if I was selling based on weight that the buyer chooses arbitrarily, the businessman in me would prefer something along the lines of "1 kg. costs approximately €3, and for higher quantity orders 5 kg. costs approximately €10."

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