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Apostrophe and adjectives

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:10 am
by chrishhh
In my letter I want to offer, return travel and two nights accommodation

It seems to me that:
"accommodation" is the noun - the thing that is being offered
"nights" is the adjective describing the noun.

So there is no possession relationship and an apostrophe is not necessary. Therefore it is nights and not nights'

Similarly I coul offer one night accommodation not one night's accommodation

Do you agree?

Chris

Re: Apostrophe and adjectives

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 3:34 am
by Alan
There is no possession in the legal sense, but there is grammatical possession, and the apostrophe is therefore necessary! Thus:

one day's/night's/week's (etc.) accommodation

two days'/nights'/weeks' (etc.) accommodation.

You may possibly be getting these determinative nouns confused with (invariable) compound adjectives such as 'three-day' in a three-day trip. Sometimes, of course, both constructions are possible, so that two weeks' vacation is essentially the same in meaning as a two-week vacation.