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Can you please elaborate in detail as to why there is an apostrophe d after the +1?

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It's hard to answer this since it is clearly not a grammatically correct english sentence. It's just a convenient abbreviation, and the apostrophe just makes it easier to read. – Urbycoz Mar 14 '12 at 10:16
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@Urbycoz: grammatically, the sentence is impeccable. We can talk about the various ways of spelling it out, but we won't find a grammar rule being broken here. "To plus-one" is a perfectly fine verb. English is flexible like that. And like any other perfectly fine verb, it is allowed to have a simple-past form. – RegDwighт♦ Mar 14 '12 at 10:28
@RegDwightѬſ道: But this question is about the abbreviation "+1", not the verb "plus-one" itself. Using the abbreviation in a sentence as above is not grammatically correct English. Also, are you sure "plus-one" is an acceptable verb? I can only find it listed as a noun: dictionary.reference.com/browse/plus-one?s=t – Urbycoz Mar 14 '12 at 10:52
@Urbycoz wait a couple years and it will be in every dictionary, just like "to google" and "to facebook". And again, using numbers to spell words is not grammatically wrong. The grammar of a sentence does not change in the slightest if you replace "plus" with "+" or "you" with "u". Which is why we have textspeak. Or Morse code, for that matter. – RegDwighт♦ Mar 14 '12 at 20:21

1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Clicking "+1" means you're adding yourself to the number of people who support or like this thing.

Clicking "+1" is an action, and plus one is being used as a verb for clicking it.

Usually the past tense of a verb such as walk is walked.

The past tense of performing this +1 action, could be spoken as "plus one-d", which has been written as +1'd.

The apostrophe is often used to denote the omission of something, or in this case to try to improve readability, and possibly an attempt to hide some of the uncertainty of how to properly make a symbol such as "+1" into the past tense.

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Except, when a verb ends in e, then you only add a d, so wouldn't it be plus-oned? Cf. liked – Matt Эллен Mar 14 '12 at 10:28
@MattЭллен: Thanks, edited! – Hugo Mar 14 '12 at 10:33

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