FluencyLab
GrammarHub
Use possessive forms with periods of time, distance and value to express measurement relationships compactly.
Overview
Use possessive forms with periods of time, distance and value to express measurement relationships compactly.
Form and rules
Singular time unit + 's: a day's work, an hour's delay, a week's notice.
Regular plural time unit + apostrophe: two weeks' notice, three days' work.
The meaning is often equivalent to of: two weeks' notice = notice of two weeks.
Similar patterns occur with distance/value: a mile's walk, ten dollars' worth.
Hyphenated compound adjectives are an alternative in some contexts: a two-week course, not a two-weeks' course.
A closer look
Similar patterns occur with distance/value: a mile's walk, ten dollars' worth.
Hyphenated compound adjectives are an alternative in some contexts: a two-week course, not a two-weeks' course.
Examples
We need a week's notice.
They gave us two weeks' notice.
It's only ten minutes' walk away.
We completed three days' work.
I bought twenty dollars' worth of fruit.
Common mistakes
A plural measurement ending in s takes an apostrophe after the s.
A singular time unit takes 's.
Ready to practise?
The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.