2

It looks a bit weird and isn't the commonly used term, but is it not correct? The apostrophe would be marking the shortening of "terms" to "t" and "conditions" to "c", of course.

Charlie Beadle
  • 21
  • 1
    In speech, I suspect if they were going to abbreviate at all, most people would probably lump both initials together and say T and C's (just as they'd ask for "Two G and T's, please" in a bar). But there's not really any meaning to the concept of "correct" here. – FumbleFingers Oct 18 '14 at 14:14
  • This from the Acronym Finder: 'What does Ts&Cs stand for? Ts&Cs stands for Terms and Conditions [ This definition appears very rarely and is found in the following Acronym Finder categories:

    Slang/chat, popular culture Business, finance, etc.]

     – Edwin Ashworth Oct 18 '14 at 14:37
  • @FumbleFingers The difference is that you wouldn't pluralize both words when you expanded that abbreviation. You'd ask for two gin and tonics, not two gins and tonics. (you're essentially treating it like a compound word gin-and-tonic) But the expanded version of Ts and Cs is terms and conditions. – Barmar Oct 19 '14 at 09:26
  • Darn it, I thought the question was on the form when I voted to close there, not the abbreviation. – Jon Hanna Jan 12 '15 at 12:11
  • Yep, "T's and C's" (with various punctuations) is a common term that would be understood by anyone in business in the US and most "average" people as well. – Hot Licks Jan 12 '15 at 12:42

1 Answers1

2

It looks a bit weird and isn't the commonly used term

It's certainly a commonly used term, and a search finds plenty using each of the variants "Ts and Cs", "Ts & Cs", "T's and C's" and "T's & C's.

Whether one uses apostrophes with single-letter capital abbreviations is something different style guides differ on. If you aren't writing to a style-guide then I'd note that to not use the apostrophe is generally the more modern style, and being consistent one way or the other is a very good idea.

Jon Hanna
  • 53,363