Do I need two apostrophes or only one?
Where should I place the apostrophe if I need only one in the following sentence:
I borrowed Bill's friends' car
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2You need two apostrophes - Bill's friend's car. – user3382203 Mar 17 '17 at 04:03
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3who does the car belong to, Bill's friend or Bill's friends? or indeed is it Bill's car that he uses to visit his friend(s) with? – JMP Mar 17 '17 at 04:21
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To add to @JonMarkPerry's comment, there's a third (rather unlikely) option: Bill keeps a car for use by friends, something referred to as a "pool car" or "friends car" in the UK. In your sentence you might borrow that car: I borrowed Bill's friends car. – Mike C Mar 17 '17 at 08:50
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Related: “Nikki's and Alice's X” vs. “Nikki and Alice's X” I know this OP has been asked before but I can't find its duplicate. – Mari-Lou A Mar 17 '17 at 11:10
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I've looked in the archives but I couldn't find an older question that answers the OP's one, the sentence requires two apostrophes because we're speaking about two different nouns belonging to two different owners. The first noun is "friend" while the second is "car". Presumably, in everyday life, the car, a friend's car, belongs to a single friend of Bill = Bill's friend.
- I borrowed Bill’s friend's car
If the car belonged to more than one friend (unlikely, but not impossible...) then the apostrophe must immediately follow the suffix denoting plurality, i.e., -s, as so:
... Bill’s friends' car
However, in the real world, I would rephrase the sentence because placing two possessive nouns, one after the other, looks and sounds a bit awkward to me. My solution would be:
- I borrowed this car off Bill's friend
The "off", as used above, is considered nonstandard in English. I don't know if American English speakers use this particular structure, but I find it very useful and very natural. I would not recommend using this in formal writing or in an English language exam, but it's fine in speech.
uk non-standard
Can I borrow £100 off you until next week?
A more formal construction would be
- I borrowed this car from a friend of Bill's
- The car belongs to a friend of Bill's
- I borrowed the car from Bill's friend
Mari-Lou A
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