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To be recognized in the Saddle River Donors List and help the Saddle River community, please include your tax free donation:

Should it be Donors or Donor?

Hellion
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susan
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    Also, since it is a donation free of tax, not a free donation of tax, it should be written your tax-free donation. – Anonym Mar 25 '15 at 17:10

3 Answers3

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Well, in English nouns used attributively are preferred to be in the singular, even if they point to a multitude. Thus, it'd usually be "Donor."

Marius Hancu
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Check out this article:

Can a plural noun act as an adjective?

Here's the biggest point that the author makes regarding your situation:

This is a good question, and the short answer is yes, plural nouns often act as adjectives, as in these examples:

  • Teachers unions
  • Girls hockey
  • Nurses station

There is a tendency for nouns that refer to people – teachers, girls, actors, and superheroes! – to be plural when they act as adjectives.

So, unfortunately, there is no right answer per se. However, the author does offer some advice:

Therefore, if you are wondering whether a noun in adjective position should appear in the singular or plural form, my advice is to check Google, see which form occurs with the highest frequency, and use it.

After the suggested Google query, I found that most lists that are published with phrasing similar to yours use "donors," so I would recommend using "donors" in your case as well.

For reference, two of the quickest finds for me were:

FreeBSD Foundation Donors List

Corporate Donors List

Hope this helps!

Community
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Donor is singular. The plural form is donors.

e.g. Donors are requested to...

B Gaurav
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    It's not a list *owned by* the donors, it's a list *of* donors. The possessive case doesn't belong here. For example, it's "parts list", and not a "parts' list". – Peter Shor Mar 25 '15 at 19:10