one of the boys...

[navi tasan]

Which are correct?

1) One of the boy's girlfriend left the room.
2) One of the boys' girlfriend left the room.
3) One of the boys' girlfriends left the room.

I am sure that '3' is correct. I think if we consider 'one of the boys' as a single unit then '2' would be correct too. I think that can be done. I don't think '1' works at all.

 

[tedmc]

Yes, #2 is possible if you mean one boy with one girlfriend,

 

[Tarheel]

I don't like any of them. Try:

One of the boy's girlfriends left the room.

I assume he had more than one girlfriend in the room, and one of them left.

There must be an interesting story behind that.

 

[jutfrank]

I agree that it's possible to make the semantic analysis that one of the boys is a single unit, but I do think that it's a very hard interpretation to take, pragmatically speaking.

Yes, you're right that #1 is wrong.

 

[emsr2d2]

For 2, I'd write "The girlfriend of one of the boys left the room".