three-week wait / 15 years' research.
-The robot is the producto of ""15 years' research"" in NASA.
-The robot faces an extra ""three-week wait"" to get into orbit.
My question is
I think it should be ""three-weekS' wait"".
Can you explain why they are different?
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 3
0
A three week wait. Here the "three week" serves as phrasal adjective for "wait". Hence no plural. "A five day holiday" etc. You cannot add an "s" unless you make it a possesive case by adding the compulsory apostrophe.
You think plurals are easy? Read this and I can safely say that even most native speakers do not know the reason unless they are linguists!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plural
0
It is a "3-week" wait. -- The phrase is hyphenated and 'week' is singular because it is an adjective modifying 'wait' .
3 weeks of wait. -- Here, 'weeks' is a predicate adjective and '3 weeks' is an adverb of time modifying 'wait'. No hyphenation.
Other points, It should be "15-year research" and the apostrophe after S is not necessary. :)
0
The hyphen is the difference. I could say "three weeks' wait".
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