Sentence to a 3 year's imprisonment

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Anonymous  #452738  Thu, 13 Dec 07 12:17 PM

Hello: Anyone can tell me, which sentences are right? 

  • There is a 3 months' probation.                                 --There is 3 month's probation.
  • sentence to a 3 months' probation / imprisonment      --sentence to 3 months' probation / imprisonment 
  • He is on a 3 months' probation / imprisonment.          --He is on 3 months' probation / imprisonment
  • He is on a 3-month probation / imprisonment.            --He is on 3-month probation / imprisonment. 

Thanks

  
Mister Micawber  #452745  Thu, 13 Dec 07 12:33 PM

These are OK:

  • There is a 3-month probation.                                
  • sentenced to a 3-month probation / imprisonment      --sentenced to 3 months' probation / imprisonment 
  • He is on a 3-month probation         --He is on 3 months' probation
  • He is on a 3-month probation 

  
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Anonymous  #452775  Thu, 13 Dec 07 01:12 PM
So follow this grammar, It is a 10-minutes meeting.=It is 10 minutes' meeting. right, teacher?
  
Mister Micawber  #452779  Thu, 13 Dec 07 01:24 PM

No.

It is a 10-minute meeting = It is 10 minutes' meeting


  
Anonymous  #452783  Thu, 13 Dec 07 01:31 PM

understand that, thanks so much.

  
Cool Breeze  #452786  Thu, 13 Dec 07 01:39 PM
In my opinion:

It's a 10-minute meeting.
It's 10 minutes' meeting.
It's a 10 minutes' meeting.
It's a meeting of 10 minutes.


CB
  
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Grammar Geek  #452793  Thu, 13 Dec 07 02:20 PM

Someone needs to help me.

It was a 10-minute meeting sounds totally normal.

What is the context for It's 10 minutes' meeting or It's a 10 minutes' meeting? Those don't sound normal at all! So I'm missing something.

It's a meeting of 10 minutes sounds grammatical, but not natural. But my mind doesn't rebel against it like the two above.



 

  
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Yankee  #452795  Thu, 13 Dec 07 02:26 PM
I agree with you, Barb.  My ear rebels against "It's 10 minutes' meeting".

I think the construction in question is most common in (to the point of being nearly exclusive to) expressions such as "in 10 mintues' time" or "in 3 months' time".  And even then, I think it sounds more British than American.


  
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Cool Breeze  #452801  Thu, 13 Dec 07 02:48 PM
 Grammar Geek wrote:

What is the context for It's 10 minutes' meeting or It's a 10 minutes' meeting? Those don't sound normal at all! So I'm missing something.

It's a meeting of 10 minutes sounds grammatical, but not natural. But my mind doesn't rebel against it like the two above.


 


Hi GG

I was concentrating more on the genitive than the verb. However, if a goup of people has a 10-minute meeting every Monday morning, I might use the present tense to inform a new employee about the meeing and its duration: It's a 10 minutes' meeting. I didn't consider the tense to be the gist of the matter, and anyone can of course change it to whatever sounds better. I just wanted to give my opinion about the structures I think correct in such expressions:

It's a two-mile walk.
It's a two miles' walk.
It's two miles' walk.
It's a walk of two miles.


Cheers
CB
  
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