Grammatical help ne...
 

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[Closed] Grammatical help needed

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 iolo
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Soldiers room - a room for many soldiers.
Should it have an apostrophe -

soldier's room

Or not?

It's for a sign in a monastery.

Thanks

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 10:04 am
 iolo
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.

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 10:04 am
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Plural possessive apostrophe: Soldiers' Room.

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 10:07 am
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Soldier's room would be for one solider
Soldiers' room for multiple soldiers

Do you even need the word room?
If not, just put Soldiers

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 10:09 am
 iolo
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Thank for the answers guys.
I should have probably listened a bit more in English class
The word room is needed as there are many rooms in the monastery.
Visitors might expect to see soldiers if it wasn't clearly written (there were no soldiers in that room I need my money back.......)

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 10:26 am
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Soldier’s room would be for one solider
Soldiers’ room for multiple soldiers

Unless it's a street name or other place name that is customarily written without an apostrophe. E.g. If it's customarily written "Pedants Road", then "Pedants' Road" is incorrect. So, if there are old documents with it written as "Soldiers Room", then just follow that precedent. If it hasn't been documented before, "Soldiers' Room."

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 10:55 am
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Tricky.

It should be Soldiers' Room. It's a room for soldiers. But you don't see toilets labelled up as Ladies' Room. I'm trying to think if I can recall apostrophes used in that manner ever; it's seemingly correct to be grammatically incorrect. The only example I can think is if it's actually part of the name, like John O' Groats Road.

Maybe we can rationalise this by saying it's the Proper Name of the room rather than it's description? "Soldiers' Room" is a room for soldiers, whereas "Solidiers Room" is a room called "Soldiers." Compare: "Soldiers' Rooms ➡" Maybe.

Can you go with "Barracks"? (-:

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 1:20 pm
 hels
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The convention is that you don't use apostrophes in signwriting.

So the sign along the road from my work at the car dealers "STEVES AUTO'S" manages four grammatical errors with eleven characters, which is going some.

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 1:29 pm
 grum
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I'm with thols2

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 1:32 pm
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Ladies toilet : "Ladies" is a noun acting as an adjective and is not possessive.
Hence it should be Soldiers Room. No apostrophe required.

By contrast soldiers' medal would be correct since it is a medal owned by the soldiers.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/everyday-grammar-when-nouns-act-like-adjectives/2998821.html

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 1:46 pm
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I wouldn’t use an apostrophe, for reasons already stated.

Steve’s Auto’s could conceivably be correct, being a contraction, but I doubt that was his intention!

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 1:50 pm
 iolo
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The Monastery in in Austria - http://www.stift-st-florian.at/en/home.html
The name of the room is actually Soldatenzimmer. It was where the guards hung out during olden times. Translated it is Soldiers (add apostrophe wherever you think)room. I told her Soldiers' room, so that´s what it will be now. If wrong, oh well.
The curator is translating the signage as there will be a lot of tourists going from the Danube river cruises.

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 2:21 pm
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The word room is needed as there are many rooms in the monastery.

For a bit there I thought it was a monastic order of militant monks! Still, they did exist in China. For self defence, obvs. 😎

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 9:03 pm
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If you take the German Soldatenzimmer then this is a compound noun which means Soldiers Room would be the direct translation.

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 9:26 pm
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For a bit there I thought it was a monastic order of militant monks!

What, like the Templars? Or the Knights Hospitaller?

 
Posted : 07/08/2021 9:41 pm

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