Find the Error 24
(Extract adapted from promotional material for a
well-known online DVD rental company)
What kind of mistake do you see? (Choose one:)
- apostrophes
- articles
- doesn't make sense
- punctuation
- singular / plural
- spelling
Answer: apostrophes
The answer to this example is very similar to that of example no. 21. The
meaning of the sentence is: 'What would you say to 6 weeks of free DVD
rental?' If we use 'of' then we don't need an apostrophe. If we remove 'of' to
shorten the sentence (perhaps to make it flow better) then we need to add an
apostrophe to show that the two phrases ('6 weeks' and 'free DVD rental')
are related to each other. We wouldn't write: '1 weeks free DVD rental'. It
would look wrong, and we would know to add an apostrophe between 'week'
and 's'. But when it is more than one week (plural 'weeks') it is less clear
what to do – whether to add an apostrophe or not – and so some of us simply
leave it out. This is a very common mistake which can be seen on posters or
leaflets in virtually any mobile phone shop, or car dealership in the country;
indeed anywhere where you can get: '12 months interest free credit' or '2 years
servicing free of charge'. Both of these sentences need an apostrophe
(after 'months' and 'years'). If you can put the word 'of' after the number of
weeks, months or years, then you need to use an apostrophe. For example:
'12 months of interest free credit' can be shortened to: '12 months' interest
free credit'. The apostrophe comes after the 's' in these examples because
there is more than one month and year. We couldn't write '12 month's …'
because the word month must have an 's' to make it plural, because there is
more than one month.
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