It may appear pedantic but "all of them received A minuses or As minus grade", does not appear to make sense.
If a subset of students received the same grade on their reports, then should the grade be pluralized?
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possible duplicate of What is the proper way to write the plural of a single letter? (another apostrophe question)– anongoodnurseOct 7, 2014 at 18:17
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4You'd probably not shy from saying A minuses out loud, so that's the order to write. Spelling it out avoids the punctuation dog's breakfast.– Edwin AshworthOct 7, 2014 at 22:20
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2 Answers
I see nothing wrong with pluralizing A minus as A minuses, like any other word. In the abbreviated form, an apostrophe would be appropriate: A−'s.
I would rephrase this as "They each received an A-."
Note: I originally said you could use "They all received an A-." Since the reason I tossed that out may be relevant, I'll explain why I changed it. To say "all" instead of "each" could mislead someone into thinking that the students received an A- as a group, rather than each of them individually earning an A-.
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Not sure, but can we also say "they each received A minuses or As minus ." Oct 7, 2014 at 18:11
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@Mou: then each of them received several grades. It doesn't have the same meaning :) Oct 7, 2014 at 18:15
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Please support your answer with sources. That makes your answer stronger, and more likely to be viewed as correct. Otherwise it's only opinion. Oct 7, 2014 at 18:18
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You'd like me to cite a source stating why it's good to rephrase sentences to avoid awkward structure? Oct 7, 2014 at 18:24
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This answer, although helpful for learning English, does not answer the question, which asks for a plural form.– DrewOct 8, 2014 at 0:33