Do and Don't

It's a commonly used expression, though always as a plural rather than the odd singular example above. But what is the best way to write its plural?

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"Dos and don'ts" seems the technically most correct option - the apostrophes are only used for indicating the omitted letters from "do not". But that "Dos" part is tricky — it looks too much like a word in itself, and that's bad for readability.

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So let's introduce an apostrophe to make it clearer. For consistency, let's also put one in the plural of "Don't" as well:

"Do's and don't's"

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But that double apostrophe in "Don't's" looks horrible and is confusing.

 

So let's try the inconsistent option:

"Do's and don'ts"

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It may be technically inconsistent, but it's much clearer — and clarity is surely a goal for any punctuation.

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So our preferred approach for this particular example is clearly "Do's and don'ts".

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