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Why don't the English teach their children how to speak as Stanley Holloway had it - you are, of course, correct. In this case "days" is a genative and therefore requires an aphostrophe.

I recall Miss Williams in primary school explaining possession of time which seemed silly at aged eight.

The killer argument you can use is to ask your protagonists to turn the statement around - viz "detention of 42 days" and then whether the possession there would indicate an apostrophe or not - if they say not then, I am afraid, as my barber says, "you can't learn pork, only cure it".

Ah goody ... I do love it when the blogs go grammatical.

I had a similar problem some time ago with a phrase '25 Eton college's worth' and couldn't decide whether it should have been that or '25 Eton colleges' worth' and in the end plumped for the first.

Probably right are either '25 Eton College's worth' or '25 Eton colleges' worth'.

But of course there's Google!

"42 day's detention" - 67 hits
"42 day detention" - 167,000 hits
"42-day detention" - 200,000 hits
"42 days detention" - 75,200 hits
"42 days' detention" - 75,200 hits

and in fact Google doesn't distinguish between "42 days detention" and "42 days' detention".

Hansard uses "42-day detention".

Hope this helps.

yes apo after plural possessive and between on singular so the only debate is whether days is plural or singular which is not a debate if you have 42 of them?

why not ask a writer like carla lane. In today's telegraph article we read .....Miss Lane said she receives scant royalties for her old shows because the 成人论坛 hardly ever shows them. "I don't know the people at the 成人论坛 any more - it's full of young girls with short skirts and large breasts."....

Did you ever hear of a book by Fowler?

Although it took me three attempts to pass my English Language "O" Level examination, I do not believe either are correct. The correct grammar is ".....42 days of detention....".

WINE AND ROSES NO MORE

Days' detention is a matter of contention.
How days might transgress, leaves me stumped - I confess!

This question, as a dear reader, I may answer by analogy. Girls' schools often use the apostrophe in this way, and some of the boys', e.g. Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. The girls' school is called Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, which is much better, rather than "of Girls". Lynne Truss, in "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" advocates this apostrophe breathlessly but strongly although with little backup material. Do you write "three weeks' holiday"? We all write "an hour's walk" but we are less likely to write "five minutes' walk". By analogy and by usage I would write "42 days' detention", but I don't like it because the meaning (an etiolated meaning) would then be "detention for [a duration of] 42 days". How about "detention for 42 days"? Do we know David Davis's views? (See Fowler.) (Incidentally, would you always write numerals in sentences?)

WHAT IS MORE

42 mile journey

42 point plan

Looks like an intrusive 's' ?

Bravo Hansard #2

ABUSAGE (#7 - only joking)

When wanting some juice without seedage
To my sieve and its use I paid heedage
The instructions for use
Said: 鈥淛ust sieve the damned juice!鈥�
Of 鈥渦sage鈥� there just was no needage.

SURELY

This is one for the Society of Pedants (or the Pedants' Society) upon which to rule?

Whenever I think of 成人论坛, I think of an apostrophe. Nothing else, just an apostrophe. Not even a footnote. Has it ever occurred to you people who work there that you don't have enough to keep you busy? So this is how the 成人论坛 web team spends its time, arguing over punctuation. My my, look at what was once the greatest news broadcasting organization in the world has been reduced to. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Examples:
Is it a long detention?
It is a 42-day detention.


In these examples the word detention is the noun, and we have words modifying or describing the detention, which makes them adjectives.

This seems clearer to me than attempting to make a day possess a detention.
(How does that work?)

THE 'IP' AN APPOSITE TROPHY

MarcusAureliusII's posting has brought to mind a possible award for Licence-payers' money-wasting: The IP! The Inappropriate Apostrophe would surely be an apposite trophy to award, daily, for the most crass, gormless, vacuous and downright aggravating item to emerge from the corporate bowels of the Newsnight Team?
It would be an apostrophe, crafted in papier-m芒ch茅, made from old Benny Hill Show scripts, and mounted on facsimile crumpled Paxman underpants (stiffened with resolve). We bloggers will direct its awarding, and the whole hilarious procedure will be caught on WEBCAM! Hurrah.

It is clear that no one would write "One day notice" but would write "One day's notice" It is the same in the plural, as the Apostrophe Protection Society has made clear

For all the importance this topic assumes given 成人论坛's penchant for thoroughness, I'm surprised 成人论坛 hasn't already consulted a team of scholars of the English Langauge at Oxford University about it. What is taking you so long 成人论坛? This is not like you. If you can't get it straight from the horse's mouth (notice my use of the apostrophe) why don't you take a poll. 67.2% of the 24,598,305 native English speakers polled said we'd got it right, 24.6% said we'd got it wrong, and 6.8% said they didn't know. The level of confidence in the poll is +/- 3.7%. Now all we need is a Professor of mathematics from Cambridge to help us out because the numbers don't add up to 100%.

Personally I think some of you people at Newsnight need to get out more.

Why don't you have a "works party".

Don't worry, be happy.

We did ask an Oxford English don. She has just come back with an answer. It says, and I quote in full:

"Hmmm. Have been deliberating on this and think that the no apostrophe decision is the best one."

Anyone who reads Virginia Woolfs diaries will note that she says dont and cant all over the place, but within their context it is clear what she means. Or should she have written Do Not - two seperate words - and Can Not - two more seperate words. The fuss over the apostrophe is the Daily Mail We Wish It Was Still 1950 Society wasting its time and ours again (not it鈥檚 or our鈥檚). The logical conclusion to the debate is to return to the use of Of: St. Pauls Road should be The Road of Saint (whole word) Paul, if you're, sorry, if you are going to be correct, whatever, that is, correct means in this particular context.

Keep out the unnecessary comma and question mark as well I say. Ban the exclamation mark. Long live the dynamic evolution of the English Language.

Now please let me get on with my days work.

Nick Ashton-Jones (not John鈥檚 son) from Derbys West End.

Wow!

How impoverished our language would become if we did not have these nuances to observe, preserve - or even just argue about! Good for democracy in Newsnight - but defend your point! Get Paxman on side!

I'm all for getting to the point in colloquial/verbal usage, but let's not throw out the wonderful tools our language gives us for accuracy and precision in the written word ... Sure, the language evolves, but don't destroy the tools it offers.

That professor of English (?!) who was talking vacuously (it seems to me anyway) the other day on News 24 about it being OK to drop the apostrophe in place names, and most of the time ... when referring to written English at least, I think that's rubbish! Shame! He's just advocated losing any distinction between hundreds/thousands of places!

Let's hear it for the precision of written language! Do what you like with verbal/colloquial usage.

I would personally say drop it, for no other reason than "visitors book" does not have an apostrophe. [The book doesn't belong to the visitors, it belongs to you.]