Where to put apostrophe after "their" when referring to plural noun?

Question

Which one is correct? I'm not sure where to put the apostrophe on "phones":

This software allows iphone users to remotely access their phone's settings.

vs

This software allows iphone users to remotely access their phones' settings.

Very similar: “They're using a cell phone” vs. “They're using cell phones”, Should a noun after the determiner their take in the form of singular or of plural? — herisson, Sep 06 '18 at 06:02
Hi I know that phones should be plural and not singular, however, my question was more about which type of plural it should be? — confused_by_grammar, Sep 06 '18 at 06:14
"phone's" is only a singular form. It can't be any kind of plural. If you want the word to be plural, then only the spelling phones' is correct. — herisson, Sep 06 '18 at 06:14
hi sumelic, you are absolutely right, my mistake, so I guess, which one is correct? Since "iphone users" is plural, once I get to the "their" part of the sentence to talk about the phone's settings, should I be referring to "phone's" like each person's phone settings, or should I be using "phones'" to refer to the everyones phone's settings? — confused_by_grammar, Sep 06 '18 at 06:20
I think that the first question that I linked to in my comment talks about this. Have you read Shoe's answer there? — herisson, Sep 06 '18 at 08:10

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 06 '18 at 15:31

You could also use phone as a noun modifier for settings and avoid the issue entirely.

For example,

This software allows iPhone users to remotely access their phone settings. The settings belong to the users, not the phones.
This software helps parents choose their baby’s name. Their are two parents for each baby and the name belongs to the baby. However, this could be rewritten as This software helps parents choose baby names.
This software makes it possible for referees to view the players’ moves from multiple angles, including many not available to the linesmen on the pitch. Here there are clearly multiple referees and multiple players, and the moves belong to the players. The sentence can be rewritten with player moves. However, in calling fouls and giving penalties, there is an assignment of responsibility, so the sense of “ownership” is relevant.

Broadly speaking, you should use the simpler form without the possessive, unless the concept of possession is important to your larger meaning.

score -3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 06 '18 at 12:25

-3

The correct answer is this - This software allows iphone users to remotely access their phone's settings.

Users can not have multiple phones. hope this can help.

answered Sep 06 '18 at 12:25

Abhinash Majhi

1

Of course users can have multiple phones. I have two myself. Even if each user only has one phone, however, the plural would still be perfectly fine since there are multiple users and thus, even at a 1:1 user/phone ratio, also multiple phones. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 06 '18 at 15:39
We are talking about individual so I thought that's right – Abhinash Majhi Sep 07 '18 at 16:21

2 Answers2