Wednesday, February 20, 2013

grammatical number - Apostrophe in “beginners guide”



In the phrase beginners guide to …, where should the apostrophe go?




  1. Beginners Guide to […]

  2. Beginners Guide to […]




In my particular case, this is the title for a presentation so there are multiple beginners that are being addressed.


Answer



If your intention is to address each member of the audience directly, I suggest you prefix the phrase with an appropriate article, as in:




A Beginner's Guide to Shoe Hurling




or





The Beginner's Guide to Shoe Hurling




The use of the apostrophe before s seems more apt in this context.



Although:





Beginners' Guide to Shoe Hurling




is also grammatically correct, but would make your presentation sound impersonal.


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