talkmagic.co.uk

Is it...

"Magician's guard an empty safe."

or

"Magicians' guard an empty safe."

?

I'm too thick to know.

"Magicians"

You don't need one in it mate

Cheers guys!

i thought it was "box" not safe?!

Jim Steinman ???

FRK wrote:Jim Steinman ???

no, my name's iain...

I just quoted Derren, who was in turn quoting someone he couldn't remmeber the name of, or the full quote!

For next time Lenoir, you'll know that the apostrophe is possessive, i.e. denoting belonging to someone. I think (but I may very well be wrong on this) it's a contraction of "his" and "hers", as in "Lenoir, his book" becomes "Lenoir's book". If something belongs to a group, like a group of magicians, you no longer need the "s", so it becomes "the magicians' box", meaning the box belonging to the magicians... because "magicians's" would be incorrect.

The reason it becomes complicated is because it's the opposite with "its/it's"; "its" is possessive (belonging to it), "it's" is a contraction of "it is" and not anything else. Knowing this, you'll now be astounded at how often you see an apostrophe in the word "its" where none is needed!

One local Council have taken the easy way out - ignore all apostrophes! See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/30 ... e_shocker/

[quote="Farlsborough"]For next time Lenoir, you'll know that the apostrophe is possessive, i.e. denoting belonging to someone. I think (but I may very well be wrong on this) it's a contraction of "his" and "hers"[quote]

I think it may be a contraction of has. But I'm just as unsure!

According to this site it's down to the german "add -es" rule (eg. Johnes hund -> John's dog)

But my grammar etymology is weak so I'm not certain of how true that is

I can highly recommend this book...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Grammar-Shou ... 984&sr=8-1

Magician's guard: an empty safe.


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