Sentence to a 3 year's imprisonment

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Yoong Liat

#452804 Thu, 13 Dec 07 02:52 PM

I also believe it should be a It is a 10 minutes' meeting.

However, I believe Mister Micawber inadvertently left out the article.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (6,100)

Yoong Liat

Articles

Yankee

#452825 Thu, 13 Dec 07 03:42 PM

I still find "It is a 10 minutes' meeting" odd. And I still think the most common usage of this construction (when talking about time) is with the word 'time'.

Yankee

Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006

Connecticut, USA

Senior Member (4,320)

Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Constructions

Cool Breeze

#452839 Thu, 13 Dec 07 04:09 PM

Yankee wrote:
I still find "It is a 10 minutes' meeting" odd. And I still think the most common usage of this construction (when talking about time) is with the word 'time'.

Hi Yankee

The oddness doubtless stems from the genitive (minutes'), which is between the article (a) and the word it qualifies (meeting). This seldom occurs in English and consequently usage hasn't settled - some use the article, some don't. Opinions on what is correct and what isn't vary as well, which is understandable.

CB

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (3,006)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Articles, Constructions, Genitives

Anonymous

#452841 Thu, 13 Dec 07 04:16 PM

He is on a 3-month probation

Anonymous

Grammar Geek

#452847 Thu, 13 Dec 07 04:27 PM

Hi Anon,

I think that issue has been settled. Any thoughts on the 10 minutes' meeting?

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (16,098)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Yankee

#452910 Thu, 13 Dec 07 08:37 PM

Cool Breeze wrote:
Yankee wrote:
I still find "It is a 10 minutes' meeting" odd. And I still think the most common usage of this construction (when talking about time) is with the word 'time'.

Hi Yankee

The oddness doubtless stems from the genitive (minutes'), which is between the article (a) and the word it qualifies (meeting). This seldom occurs in English and consequently usage hasn't settled - some use the article, some don't. Opinions on what is correct and what isn't vary as well, which is understandable.

CB

I don't feel comfortable with that sentence either with or without the article. You may be able to argue that it is grammatically correct "technically speaking" or "prescriptively speaking", just as you can argue that saying "It is I" is technically correct. That doesn't change the fact that "It is (a) 10 minutes' meeting" sounds completely unnatural to my ear.

Yankee

Articles, Constructions, Genitives

Grammar Geek

#452911 Thu, 13 Dec 07 08:41 PM

I'm glad to hear that it sounds just as odd to you, Amy.

I'm marginally more comfortable with "It's a ten minutes' walk from here" but still greatly prefer "It's a ten-minute walk from here."

But I really can't make "It's a ten minutes' meeting" work for me at all.

Grammar Geek

CalifJim

#453018 Fri, 14 Dec 07 03:26 AM

The problem for me is that when I hear

It's a ten minutes' meeting / five days' journey / ...

I think the speaker has actually uttered the ungrammatical

It's a ten-minutes meeting / five-days journey / ...

and my brain says, no, it's not a ten-minutes meeting (five-days journey, ...); it's a ten-minute meeting (five-day journey, ...).

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,794)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Mister Micawber

#453089 Fri, 14 Dec 07 08:50 AM

A little late to punch in here, but it would be craven of me to avoid my mess entirely.

When I posted 'It is a 10-minute meeting = It is 10 minutes' meeting', I was still thinking of the previous post ('He is on a 3-month probation -- He is on 3 months' probation')

I don't know why probation works while meeting does not (something to do with the preposition?), but I certainly agree that 'It is a 10-minute meeting' is the only way to go.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,690)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Prepositions

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