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I understand what the sentence The house is a full day’s journey from here means, but I’m wondering what day’s is short for in this expression. It doesn’t match any pattern I know.

A couple of examples:

  • He’s = he is
  • Let’s = let us
  • Mary’s car = the car belongs to Mary
  • Day’s = it sounds to me like something belongs to a day and this is what I don’t understand. Shouldn’t it be The house is a full day of journey from here instead?
TRiG
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Jim
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    There is a blog post about this! – Matt E. Эллен Jan 08 '14 at 14:16
  • As no one yet has answered “what is it short for”, I will. The long form The house is a full day its journey from here. We then contract day its to day's. This may be controversial, as to the why, but the single apostrophe rule does help with the what (where/when to use apostrophes). http://richarddelorenzi.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/a-single-rule-for-apostrophes/ – ctrl-alt-delor Jan 09 '14 at 09:05
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    This is not in fact true, though a belief that it was brought about a short-lived blossoming of phrases like 'Nick his dog' in the 1500s and onwards – Tom Robinson Jan 09 '14 at 10:20
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    "The house is a full day its journey from here." That just doesn't make sense to me though. What on earth is "its" doing in there? – Chris Jan 09 '14 at 11:21
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    And then it would be "Mary'r car". – Mr Lister Jan 09 '14 at 14:20
  • Why not "Mary's = ..."? – Bleeding Fingers Jan 09 '14 at 17:44
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    @Bleeding Fingers: "Mary his car" or "Mary her car"? – Henry Jan 09 '14 at 18:15
  • Thanks @Nick for pointing out that I am not the first no notice this rule, and that others may have thought it saw where it all came from. As for me I don't care it just helps be know when to use an apostrophe. It's not like I did any research except testing the logic, to see that the rule works. – ctrl-alt-delor Jan 10 '14 at 09:10
  • As the article says it may not be historically accurate, it is just a way to help you remember. There is a sort of exception and that is that the rule is genderless: it always takes the masculine/neutral form. So no 'r. Or you could say that we truncate Mary hers car, though we are stretching the grammar. – ctrl-alt-delor Jan 10 '14 at 09:12

6 Answers6

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The fourth example is the correct interpretation of day's, but with two things to keep in mind.

First, in your conclusion you flipped the words around incorrectly*; the journey "belongs to" the day, not the other way around. You could re-write the sentence as:

The house is a journey of a full day from here.

Second, while the journey is "of a day," this does not necessarily mean the day "owns" or "possesses" the journey; grammatically, time periods are simply treated as possessive.

* "A full day of journey" would actually work, but that would make "of journey" a subordinate clause rather than the day belonging to the journey; though, as WS2 brought out in the comments, this should actually be "A full day of journeying".

Community
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IQAndreas
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    But a 'full day's journey' would be the normal expression. – WS2 Jan 08 '14 at 13:28
  • @WS2 You are right, in English, it would. Just like "Phil's ball" is more normal than "The ball of Phil" even though both are grammatically correct. – IQAndreas Jan 08 '14 at 13:31
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    And, of course, don't forget plurals, e.g. "The coast is two full days' journey from here" – Phil M Jones Jan 08 '14 at 13:34
  • Thanks for your answer! To me "full day's journey", "a full day of journey", "a journey of a full day", "a journey that takes a full day" sound correct. – Jim Jan 08 '14 at 13:35
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    @Jim They would all be correct grammar except for 'a full day of journey'. That would need to be 'a full day of journeying'. But you can't really beat 'a full day's journey' for correctness and succinctness. – WS2 Jan 08 '14 at 13:42
  • Dear anonymous editor to my question. Although I edited out most of your suggestion, the information you brought up helped me dig up more research on the matter, and let me answer more thoroughly. Thank you. – IQAndreas Jan 08 '14 at 21:40
  • Presumably this would extend to "two days' journey", where "two days" is treated as a singular noun, rather than the plural? – AlbeyAmakiir Jan 08 '14 at 22:09
  • "…grammatically, time periods are simply treated as possessive." You know, I've always intuitively understood this, but somehow I've never heard it stated so plainly. The couple of times it was mentioned growing up, teachers seemed too uncomfortable just to come right out and say it. – Jordan Gray Jan 09 '14 at 09:19
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It's called a "transferred epithet"- the possessive case is incidental, as in...

I had a good night's sleep: The good sleep was mine to enjoy, but it is attributed to the night it happened.

He put in a honest day's work: The quality or extent of work belonged to the doer, but it is attributed to the day.

Simha
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12

The 's on the day's is possesive in your case - but see @Simha's answer

More time examples

  • Three months' experience
  • One month's experience
  • Today's appointment
  • In two days' time
  • A year's worth of magazines
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mplungjan
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3

It means something that belongs or is associated to a given day.

  • That particular day's event.
  • It happened on this year's second month's third day's eleventh hour
Bleeding Fingers
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The journey does indeed belong to the day in the same way that the wages belong to the day in the sentence, "This will cost a full day's wages." There is no other word in the original sentence that day's could modify. I think it is just a simple possessive modifier like the example: "The satellite will follow the moon's rotation." It will follow the rotation of the moon.

"The house is a full day’s journey from here." It is a journey of a full day from here.

user2243
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Your "full day of journey" proposal is correct. Think of the possessive apostrophe meaning "of" (in the sense of belonging), and you won't go far wrong.

If it still sounds strange, it's because people are using flowery language: in place of "a day's journey" you might imagine a flowery writer using the phrase, "a journey so long, that it was servant to the day".

please delete me
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