Specific use of apostrophe with the word 'ago'

[Stephen Morse]

Am I using the apostrophe correctly in the following phrases ?

10 years' ago.

A couple of days' ago.

Thank you.

Stephen Morse

 

[emsr2d2]

Am I using the apostrophe correctly in the following phrases?

10 years' ago.

A couple of days' ago.

[STRIKE]Thank you.[/STRIKE] Unnecessary. Thank us after we help you, by clicking on the "Thank" button.

[STRIKE]Stephen Morse[/STRIKE] Unnecessary. We can see your username.

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

No. The apostrophe there is incorrect. It is required in things like:

It is two minutes' walk.
I have ten years' worth of newspapers in my attic.

Note my corrections and comments above, in the quote box. Don't put a space before a closing punctuation mark.

 

[PaulMatthews]

No, it's incorrect. "Ago" is a preposition, not a noun, so the noun phrase "10 years" cannot function as its genitive (possessive) determiner as it would in, say, "10 years' work".

Note that "ago" is an unusual preposition in that it invariably follows its complement, in this case "10 years", rather than precedes it, as is normally the case with prepositions.

 

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER

Hello, Mr. Morse:

1. I did some research and discovered that there are different opinions about the classification of the word "ago."

2. The website Dictionary.com feels that it is an adjective that means "gone" or "gone by" or "past," as in "five days ago." It feels that the word is an adverb that means "in the past," as in "All this happened long ago."

3. Here is what the famous grammarian Otto Jespersen wrote: "We must specially mention ago, as in " He came back a few minutes ago." Dr. Jespersen says that "ago" is "a participle of an obsolete verb ago = 'go'; the old form was agone." Jespersen, Essentials of English Grammar (1933), page 314.

 

[jutfrank]

It is a preposition according to some grammarians. Some still consider it an adverb.

Well, it can't be an adverb when coupled to a noun phrase, in a phrase such as five years ago. Can it?

It does make sense to me as an adverb in long ago, however.

 

[PaulMatthews]

It is a preposition according to some grammarians. Some still consider it an adverb.

Yes, some do, but consider this pair:

[1] I recall his behaviour ten days ago.

[2] That was ten days ago.

In [1] the ago phrase modifies the noun "behaviour", and in [2] it is predicative complement of the verb "was".

These functions are characteristic of preposition phrases, not adverb phrases.

 

[Rover_KE]

Thread moved, as the question was answered in posts 2 and 3 and the OP appears to have lost interest – with nary a single 'Thank' or 'Like'.

 

[jutfrank]

As usual, I'd prefer to think about the semantics rather than the grammar. Simply put, prepositions are ways of expressing different kinds of relations between 'things', whatever those things may be.

Both in and ago can express a temporal relation between the present moment and a point in future and past time respectively.

in ten minutes
ten minutes ago

I can't see how it is possible to understand ago as an adverb in such a simple phrase as above since there is neither a verb nor an adjective to pair it to.

 

[jutfrank]

So 'earlier' is a preposition in 'ten years earlier'?

If you're asking me about how I personally see things, in terms of meaning, I think it's kind of similar, yes.

If you're asking about what part of speech it would traditionally be labelled, in terms of form, of course I would have to agree it's an adjective.

 

[jlinger]

Not a teacher

Adverb/Preposition/Whatever.

This thread makes me question if an apostrophe could be appropriate in "In ten years' time, I will be..." [which I believe is correct] and if so, then it would be all right to write, "That was ten years' time ago" and therefore, to abbreviate it as "That was ten years' ago," which at first glance I thought was incorrect.

 

[JohnAllen]

It is not correct to add an apostrophe at the end of the word before ago.

You can say:

I will reply to his message in two weeks' time.

I have 30 years' experience


But ago should not be preceded with an apostrophe

I saw my best friend ten days ago.

Three years ago, I decided to leave the UK.