In Expressions^x, Genitives^x, Plurals^x

Hi Kiitixay The preposition is in or at in the basic expressions only: He came in the morning / in the afternoon / in the evening. You can see the stars at night. Nothing exceptional happened at noon. A plural is possible as well: It often rains in the morning s . When you deviate from the basic...

Hi Rosalama No answer to your question will please everybody. Many people think no apostrophe should be used in your expressions: in the 1980s The plural genitive is formed by adding an apostrophe after the plural s, so the genitive should be: I don't like the 1980s' music. However, many people...

J Lewis: Thank you for the explanation of 'soccer'. I knew it had been coined from 'association', but didn't know it had been done by the British. Words like 'clothesline' are in dictionaries, so it's understandable that the plural s is there. A United Nations assembly is not in dictionaries and...

However, in quantitative expressions of the following type there is possible variation: a ten day absence 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...

1. Plural nouns not ending in 's' take both the apostrophe and the 's': "The children's toys." "The men's cars." 2. Nouns that take -s for the plural add only the apostrophe to indicate possession (this is called 'zero genitive'): "The boys' toys." "The dogs' tails." 3. The 'zero form'...