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Subject:Re: Common Errors in English From:"Mark L. Levinson" <nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sat, 28 Feb 2004 20:39:18 +0200
Mark Baker writes:
> In the first place, the practice of saying that one sentence is really
> another sentence for the purpose of imposing a grammatical construction on
> it won't do.
Right. Indeed I think the whole long message is right
in theory. But the example is wrong in specific.
One writes "nine years' experience" not because of Latin
or because of arcane grammatical rules, but because of
how English works. You can't hear the apostrophe in
the plural when you speak, but it's obvious if you think
of the singular: a week's experience, not a week experience.
A year's seniority, not a year seniority. A month's
vacation, not a month vacation. Thus two months' vacation,
five years' seniority, nine years' experience.
Mark L. Levinson
Herzliya, Israel
nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
