Plural of request for proposal - Writing for Business
» VIEW ALL POSTS Sep 8 2009   3:17PM GMT

Plural of request for proposal



Posted by: Ivy Wigmore
CIO, pluralization, acronyms and initialisms, Business writing, Quiz
typing Which is correct?
When you respond to _______________ from multiple companies, you should demonstrate a broad understanding of each organization’s culture.
a. request for proposals
b. requests for proposal

Answer: b

Explanation:
A request for proposal (RFP) is a single request, generally seeking multiple proposals. (The singular form is sometimes spelled request for proposals.) The plural form is requests for proposal because there are multiple requests. It’s like cups of tea (rather than cup of teas) or sets of tennis (rather than set of tennises).

So, if the plural is requests for proposal, what’s the plural of RFP?
Although request for proposal is pluralized as requests for proposal — which makes it seem like the plural should be RFP — we treat the abbreviation as a single word. So, to indicate multiple requests, make it RFPs.

Comment on this Post


You must be logged-in to post a comment. Log-in/Register

Jswalwell  |   Nov 2 2009   6:37PM GMT

Thank you for showing the plural of RFP as RFPs. I am constantly irritated by people writing acronym plurals as RFP’s. I believe that form indicates something posessed or owned by an RFP.