20 minutes' break

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Teo  #207432  Sun, 19 Mar 06 05:24 AM

However, in quantitative expressions of the following type there is possible variation:

a ten day absence [singular]

a ten-day absence [hyphen + singular]

a ten days absence [plural]

a ten days' absence [genitive plural]

With temporal nouns in the plural, the apostrophe is sometimes omitted: several weeks'/weeks vacation

Pages 325 &1333, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, by Randolph Quirk et al. 1985

  
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