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In the sentence "Foreign visitors are only allowed one month's residence", why is 's used? I found this sentence in an old version of the Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary.

Emad
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1 Answers1

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Because it is a paraphrase of a residence of one month, so it's possessive.

Since this is shown only in writing, many people are not aware of it, and the possessive is often not marked, especially in the plural (so you see three years experience as commonly as three years' experience). But the formal stylebooks tell you you need it.

Colin Fine
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  • So all of these are correct? right? one month's residence, one month residence , a one-month residence – Emad Mar 25 '21 at 16:36
  • The first and third are fine. Some people will object to the second. – Colin Fine Mar 25 '21 at 19:43
  • When I said that people often don't bother to mark the possessive, I was thinking of plural cases, where there is already an "s", and the only question is whether to write three years or three years' (or even three year's). Where it's one, I think most English speakers will say "one month's residence", however they spell it. – Colin Fine Mar 25 '21 at 19:45