three page book

Status
Not open for further replies.

tufguy

VIP Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Location
India
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Hindi
Home Country
India
Current Location
India
Hi guys,

Please tell me. Whether we have to say"Three page book" or "Three pages book", "three year old" or "three years old", "three hour journey" or "three hours journey" or "three hour's journey". Please also tell me what are the rules to be followed?
 

probus

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
"Three page book" or "Three pages book"

"Three pages book" is always incorrect. "Three page" is an adjective phrase that describes the book. In English, adjectives are not agreed in number with the nouns they modify.

"three year old" or "three years old"

Both may be correct depending on context. "The boy Simon was three years old." "Simon was a three year old boy."

"three hour journey" or "three hours journey" or "three hour's journey".

Three hour's is wrong because the hours do not possess the journey. The apostrophe in "hour's" indicates possession. Otherwise the answer is the same as in your first example. "Three hour journey" is right.
 

probus

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Experience has taught me that many or most of my colleagues on this site prefer such hyphens. I never use them (except sometimes here in deference to the majority) and I think they are antiquated.
 
Last edited:

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Antiquated or not, I agree with tedmc.

Without hyphens, 'I look after three year old children' could mean 'I look after three-year-old children' or 'I look after three year-old children'.
 

tzfujimino

Key Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Japanese
Home Country
Japan
Current Location
Japan
Hello, Rover.:)

Does 'I look after three year-old children' make sense? (Is it a meaningful sentence?)
(I agree about the hyphenation.)
 

Matthew Wai

VIP Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2013
Member Type
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
I take it to mean 'I look after three children who are a year old'.

Not a teacher.
 

tufguy

VIP Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Location
India
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Hindi
Home Country
India
Current Location
India
But in grammer book I read. We should say or write three-page book or three-year old child because the first word has told us about the multiple pages and years. I also read that we can use 's for time.
 

MikeNewYork

VIP Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Tufguy, that should be "three-year-old child". "Old" is part of the adjective.
 

tedmc

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Malaysia
I understand the 'with or without hyphen' for multi-word adjectives is a British-American thing.
In the Christmas song 'Jingle Bells', the British lyric shows 'in a one-horse open sleigh'.
The American lyric shows 'in a one horse open sleigh'.

not a teacher
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top