What is the correct grammar for this?

[MrsTumbletap]

All the staff cars are red
All the staff cars' are red

Currently debating this, there is nothing in google where you can type in a sentence and it corrects it for you.

So would like to know general opinion here.

The first, it’s plural, no apostrophe needed.

The first one. Nothing belongs to the cars.

The top one is correct OP!

The first sentence

The first. The cars don't possess anything.

It's not because it's plural that no apostrophe is needed. The possessive is the cars that belong to the staff so the apostrophe would go in staff's cars. But if they're simply called staff cars then no apostrophe is needed.

Currently debating this, there is nothing in google where you can type in a sentence and it corrects it for you

A missed opportunity?

The second is definitely wrong because the apostrophe implies possession.

All the staff cars’ wheels were stolen would be ok.

But I’d like to know the difference between

all the staff’s cars and all the staff cars

The second one is using a noun as an adjective. Is that grammatically correct? I quite like it. Feels Germanic.

First one looks correct to me.

The first.

The second would read like... all the staff carses are red... iyswim?

You could say all the staff's cars are red.

The girl's car is red.
The girls' car is red.

So the car in the first one belongs to the girl.
In the second one, there is one car and it belongs to all the girls.

You can see that an 's' has been added to show the possessive.

The staff car is red.
The staff cars are red.

So the car belongs to the staff. But no 's' has been added to show the possessive. I am sure there is a grammatical reason for that.

Top one is correct

The difference is if you call the red cars "staff cars" and they are regulation generic red staff cars.....or if you are just taking about all the cars that happen to belong to staff being red - "the staff's cars"

Simple! 🤷‍♀️

I’d like to know the difference between 'all the staff’s cars' and 'all the staff cars'

The second one is using a noun as an adjective

Both could be correct but mean different things so it depends on what you mean.

1 all the staff's cars = all the cars belonging to staff

2 all the staff cars = all the cars designated for use by staff, ie, not owned by the staff but available for use by staff.

IAll the staff's cars are red. would be correct too.

Depending on what you're saying!

I don't think the first sentence is wrong, as coatlessinspokane says staff is an adjective.

"The staff cars" sounds as if the cars are ones belonging to the company which staff use. (In other words not necessarily belonging to individual members of staff.)

"The staff's cars" give more of an impression that it's the cars belongs to individual members of staff.

Alternative might be:

Every member of staff has a red car
All the company's staff cars are red

If 'staff cars' is the term for all the cars, 'staff' is an adjective - it describes that group of cars - no apostrophe needed.

If they're just cars that happen to belong to the staff, 'staff's cars' would be correct (before, not after the s, because staff is a plural noun - cf 'children's')

Many cross posts! That'll teach me to write a post then talk to someone before returning to hit "Post"!!

Whilst All the staff cars are red is correct, I think the inclusion of the causes some ambiguity. As others have said, staff here is being used as an adjective to describe the cars, but inclusion of the definite article almost tricks your brain into thinking of staff as a noun.

Ah yes generic vs specific that makes sense.

So...

Dog collar - generic collar for dogs

Dog’s collar - collar belonging to a particular dog.

Kind of! I think ...

When I doubt something then I just change the sentence so I would just say all of the staff have red cars!

You are all fabulous.
Thank you