nations' efforts or nations efforts

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wholegrain

#545682 Thu, 24 Jul 08 03:30 AM

Well, I have seen nouns act as noun modifiers, but since nation is in plural I was wondering if it was of correct usage to say: "nations efforts" rather than "nations' efforts".

wholegrain

Joined on Thu, Jun 19 2008

Full Member (284)

Nouns, Plurals

unixfanatic

#545742 Thu, 24 Jul 08 05:41 AM

nations' efforts -- otherwise there is no possession and it's just a random couple of words strung together

unixfanatic

Joined on Thu, Jul 24 2008

New Member (04)

wholegrain

#545923 Thu, 24 Jul 08 03:27 PM

"Powers struggles amongst Iraqi Shia"

Is the above incorrect then?

wholegrain

optilang

#545934 Thu, 24 Jul 08 04:04 PM

wholegrain
"Powers struggles amongst Iraqi Shia"

Is the above incorrect then?

Power struggles amongst Iraqi Shia.

optilang

Joined on Tue, May 13 2008

Poland

Senior Member (2,107)

OptiNative British English Speaker Wherever I may roam, I'm still a Londoner.

wholegrain

#545952 Thu, 24 Jul 08 05:17 PM

Why is it correct in singular, but wrong in plural?

wholegrain

Plurals

optilang

#545953 Thu, 24 Jul 08 05:24 PM

I take it that this is a headline.

Power struggles (are going on) amongst Iraqi Shia.

optilang

Grammar Geek

#545993 Thu, 24 Jul 08 08:16 PM

wholegrain
Why is it correct in singular, but wrong in plural?

Power is used as an adjective. What sort of struggles? Power struggles.

(If the headline meant that the highly placed people, referred to as "the powers," were struggling, then the stuggle becomes a verb and would need to be in the plural. )

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,294)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Plurals, Verbs

wholegrain

#546002 Thu, 24 Jul 08 08:51 PM

But why?

I mean if we would be referring to something that modifies a noun in general, we would say noun modifier.

But think of a particular noun modifier that modifies two nouns, wouldn't it be practical to say nouns modifier in this instance? ex: grass death bringer

...or when referring to particular instances? ex: developed nations efforts

Don't you think this usage should be accepted at the least if it isn't?

wholegrain