I don’t really care all that much when people posting stuff in their free time online make mistakes with apostrophes. It does irritate me a little, and reminding people of the rules is a good idea. This rule is there to aid clarity.
However, it seems that hardly anybody working at my daughter’s school can get it right. In year 6 SATs (aged 10-11), she’ll get penalised for not using apostrophes correctly - it can mean the difference between level 3a and level 4c.* Yet her teachers are unable to meet this standard themselves.
*Really, this is more important for the school than for her, but it does affect her placement in classes once she starts secondary school.
I frequent another board for English teachers in Korea. Far too many of the posters there use the instead of the apostrophe. What's alarming about that is not only are they English teachers, a good many of those using the are teaching at universities!
I was thinking I’d write it “two week’s” but on second thought her way is probably better as it stresses the oneness of it. Anyway, it is along the same lines as “a year’s growth”, that is, a year’s worth of growth, not the growth of a years (whatever a “years” may be).
Looking at it I think it should be a two week notice, but I’m not familiar with the standard.
If I give notice, it doesn’t necessarily matter what time period is involved; the notice is mine to give.
If I give two weeks notice then, yes, it would seem plural, describing the number of weeks. I also feel it should be a one week notice, not a one weeks (or one week’s) notice.
If I have one days rations left in the fridge, do the rations belong to the day? It seems more idiomatic to me and closer to the 80’s -v 80s question. In the case of 80s music, for example, the music would seem to belong to the eighties, but the issue isn’t really possession, it’s convention.
I can justify it with, one day’s *worth *of rations, but that doesn’t help with two weeks worth of notice.
You’re taking it too literally. It would help if we started the using the older term genitive rather than possessive; they mean the same thing, but the word ‘possessive’ trips people up. The noun ‘week’ is in the genitive case there, meaning that you could replace it with ‘Susan’ - ‘Susan’s notice period is two weeks.’ It’s not saying that the weeks own anything. Susan doesn’t own the notice either, does she, but would you lose the apostrophe there? If you say John’s girlfriend, are you saying that John owns the girlfriend?
In 80s music, the word 80s is an adjective, which written out in full would be eighties (not eighty’s or eighties’). You could change it to other adjectives like ‘British’ or ‘pop’ or ‘really bad’. The reason there’s confusion over whether or not to use the apostrophe is because people used to write numbers, initialisms and acronyms with apostrophes even when writing them as straightforward plurals.
By the way, why wouldn’t ‘two weeks’ worth of notice’ work? It’s talking about an amount in the same way as one day’s rations is. ‘How much notice do you require?’ ‘Two weeks.’ ‘That’s two weeks’ notice then? OK, thanks.’
It’s not idiomatic, a matter of convention, or a matter of style (at least, no more than any other item of punctuation or grammar is), it’s a straightforward grammatical construct that happens to have a name that confuses people.
Wow! Whooshed yourself not once but twice!
The possessive form of “it” is “its”, dumbass. It doesn’t matter what you meant it as, it is (or it’s) wrong!
FTR the internet extends well beyond the US borders… and your limited comprehension of the english language apparently.
It’s talking about an amount in the same way as one day’s rations is. ‘How much notice do you require?’ ‘Two weeks.’ ‘That’s two weeks’ notice then? OK, thanks.’