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In this sentence, “I would like to apply for the post of adults’ English teacher,” do you say “adults’ English teacher” or “adult’s English teacher”? If this sentence is totally wrong, could you paraphrase the sentence in a way that the meaning remains? Thanks in advance.

Elham
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    You can side-step the awkwardness by writing "I teach English to adults." Of course if you say it, there is no apostrophe evident. – Weather Vane Sep 06 '19 at 18:16
  • It would be a bit crass to say I teach English to foreigners, so I'd suggest I teach English in adult education*. But I can't see any obvious and simple way of distinguishing between whether you mean teaching native Anglophones* how to read and write (because for some reason they didn't learn these basic skills at school, which would often imply some kind of "special needs"), or because they don't actually know enough English (particularly, spoken English) to get by. – FumbleFingers Sep 06 '19 at 18:28
  • You probably want an answer "A (or B) is the correct way to write this." But neither is ungrammatical, and while the plural possessive probably shades it on the grounds of logic, both look ungainly (and that can be as real a factor as ungrammaticality). There is even, as association rather than possession is indicated, quite a strong argument for the plural-form attributive usage (“I am an adults English teacher"), in line with 'X Working Mens Club'; 'Y Writers Guild' (qv) and the like. But Weather Vane and FF give sound advice. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 06 '19 at 18:38
  • Thank you all. Yes, I can change the order in some way, but actually I wanna write this sentence: “I would like to apply for the post of adults’ English teacher.” Any suggestions for paraphrasing? – Elham Sep 06 '19 at 18:57
  • An English teacher for adults – Mari-Lou A Sep 06 '19 at 19:05
  • I'd paraphrase this as nothing but "English teacher". The ambiguity between adults English" and "adults teacher" shows there has to be an equivalence between both for the whole set "adults english teacher" to work. But this is discriminatory and just wrong. There is a limited sense in which the discrimination works, but not in favor of the "adults". The phrase ESL-teacher, English as a second language* implies age 4 and up, at least. It seems from the comments that for adults is the prefered paraphrase. – vectory Sep 06 '19 at 19:24
  • @vectory that's like saying menswear shops are discriminating against women and children. There are schools that specialise in teaching English to adults who already speak it fairly well but who want to be fluent. How is this discriminatory? If someone's job is teaching adults, why should they not say so? – Weather Vane Sep 06 '19 at 19:44
  • It's not clear what you're even asking. "I'm an adult's English teacher" would mean that you're the English of some adult. "I am an adults’ English teacher" and "I am an adult’s English teacher" aren't grammatical, or at the very least aren't idiomatic. "I'm an adult English teacher" would be what you would say if you are an English teacher who is an adult. "I'm an adult-English teacher" would be what you would say if you teach English in an adult-education program (i.e., you're teaching an adult-English class, an English class for adults). – Benjamin Harman Sep 06 '19 at 19:57
  • @WeatherVan while the point is arguable, the equivalence mens wear and mens shop should be quite clear. It is not clear cut, and the social issue is part of an ongoing debate for over a decade. You picked a dicy yet innocious example. Whatever the validity of the term men giving it as much leaway as possible, we can probably agree that mens wear, wear shop and perhaps even mens shop are well meaningful. However adults english is dubious; adults teacher almost an oxymoron. Baring that, a mens shop is not where men are sold and the plural, short of dativ mannen (cp sunnendag) – vectory Sep 06 '19 at 20:36
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    @vectory excuse me but you seem to be talking nonsense. I wrote "menswear shop" which has absolutely no ambiguity or confusion. It sells men's clothing, which anyone can buy there. – Weather Vane Sep 06 '19 at 20:42
  • @Weather Vane There's also at least one English lang. website intended for proficient users and linguists, and not those seeking answers to the more basic questions which we all start off with. Allegedly. (Though this question, though addressed here before, is not in that category.) – Edwin Ashworth Sep 07 '19 at 10:17
  • OP has edited his question since and my comment is based on this: I would like to apply for the adult English teacher post – aesking Sep 07 '19 at 15:26

1 Answers1

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Use neither. On the one hand, this is the literal difference between the two:

I am an adult's English teacher

suggests that you are a teacher to one adult;

I am an adults' English teacher

suggests that you teach multiple adults.

On the other hand, these sentences are both awkward. Possessives tend to work less well when long phrases are involved. In this case, it can become less clear what the possessive is determining: is the subject you teach "adult('s/s') English" or "English"? There are a few strategies for avoiding the extra awkwardness of the possessive:

  1. Use a noun adjunct. "I am an adult English teacher." It still has ambiguity, namely whether you are an adult who teaches English or whether you teach English to adults, but my top Google search results turn up job ads for the latter. That collocation avoids the possessive entirely.

  2. Verb the noun. Make teacher into teach and explain what you do after that. "I teach English to adult learners" or "I teach English to adults" would explain what you do. A couple of my first search results link to TEFL teachers who describe themselves in exactly this way.

  3. Distinguish your audience in a prepositional phrase. "I am an English teacher for adult learners" or "I am an English teacher for adults." If it is important you say teacher, this breaks up the information in a way that makes adults more proximal to teacher than English, and uses for to disambiguate the purpose.

TaliesinMerlin
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  • everybody seems to recommend for,and in German I'd agree, "für", but why not to, "I'm a ... to you", "I am teaching English to adults" ... oh, I see, "* I'm an English to adults teacher" (not idiomatic at all), but "For adults I am teaching English". This separates "English" and "adults" as far as possible. – vectory Sep 06 '19 at 19:32
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    If someone is applying for a post, that post must have been advertised. What does the advertisement call it? – Kate Bunting Sep 07 '19 at 07:52
  • The advertisement is not in English. – Elham Sep 07 '19 at 10:55