Grammar Check anyone please?

[Overseasmom100]

is it

over 17 years teaching experience
over 17 years' teaching experience
over 17 year's teaching experience

Thank you

@Karwomannghia

‘I have over a year’s teaching experience’ clearly illustrates it’s years’ for the plural version.

Exactly - because it’s possessive.

I think people get confused because they think there has to be a person, or maybe an actual possession - e.g. Jane’s hat.

In this case, the years possess the experience.

It's years'.

There is no doubt about it. In this context, years' is correct.

I despair of the educational standards in this country sometimes.

@picklemewalnuts

Grammar book says it's 1.

Grammar book says it’s 2.

It explicitly says that 1 is wrong.

I meant two! I just typed fast and didn't look. I was really interested because I assumed 2 because of possession (years of teaching- but that isn't possession), but the book suggests it's to do with units of time.

Sorry my brain and my words aren't matching today. I'm going to stop before I confuse myself even more.

@JONSAR

Teacher of English here. Definitely number 1. A straight forward plural.

And this is why MN should ban all posters who begin their posts with the: " here"

It would do them a kindness and save them the public humiliation.

Years’, because it’s a plural possessive.

One year’s experience
Two (+) years’ experience.

But you could also say ‘17 years of teaching experience’, where the apostrophe would be replaced by the ‘of’, IYSWIM.

years'

It would do them a kindness and save them the public humiliation.

I'm seriously considering a name change.

@Hatbatthat I scrolled through to see if anyone had said "more than". You're the only one.

years'

17 years experience or 17 years' experience

Can someone explain why it's important in this example?

What confusion could be caused?

@chomalungma - if the person is applying for a teaching job, particularly teaching English, then using the correct SPAG matters. It's not about confusing the reader.

@chomalungma

17 years experience or 17 years' experience

Can someone explain why it's important in this example?

What confusion could be caused?

It doesn’t make sense. You might as well stick two other random nouns next to each other. 17 dogs boat. In addition, experience can be a verb as well as a noun, so 17 years experience means the 17 years are experiencing something - experience is a verb - which also doesn’t make sense.

Teacher of English here. Definitely number 1. A straight forward plural.

Well, that's embarrassing...

It's the middle one, OP. Trust me, I do this sort of thing for a living.

I despair at the number of teaching professionals who have come into this thread confidently stating the wrong answer as correct 🤦 This is surely basic grammar for an English teacher?

It's years'.

It doesn’t make sense. You might as well stick two other random nouns next to each other. 17 dogs boat. In addition, experience can be a verb as well as a noun, so 17 years experience means the 17 years are experiencing something - experience is a verb - which also doesn’t make sense

It does.

People seem to be happy with either 17 years experience or 17 years' experience.

Does the apostrophe help clear any confusion that might exist?

[quote iklboo]@chomalungma - if the person is applying for a teaching job, particularly teaching English, then using the correct SPAG matters. It's not about confusing the reader. [/quote]
But does it make a difference to the overall meaning?

What is the difference between 17 years experience, 17 year's experience or 17 years' experience?

This thread is hilarious 😂

@chomalungma - Personally, although I know that No2 is correct and would use that by default, No1 doesn't look crazy to me because it IS different to writing two random nouns such as "17 dogs boat" - the "of" is implicit (I think) in "17 years experience".

I guess if one were being pedantic, "17 year's experience" could be read as relating to the experience, um, experienced by a year named 17...😁 it'd be a tricky mistake to make though!

People seem to be happy with either 17 years experience or 17 years' experience.

Does the apostrophe help clear any confusion that might exist?

But people aren’t happy with the first one. There’s a whole thread of people saying it’s wrong. The apostrophe helps explain that experience is a noun, not a verb, and that the experience belongs to the 17 years. Otherwise you ask yourself, “17 years are experiencing what?” It doesn’t make any sense grammatically without the apostrophe. If you heard it spoken, of course it’s fine, because the sound is the same, but in writing it’s nonsense.

Otherwise you ask yourself, “17 years are experiencing what

No, you don't,

Not really.

@chomalungma

Otherwise you ask yourself, “17 years are experiencing what

No, you don't,

Not really.

I look at it without the apostrophe and think it's either a typo or the author has poor spag.

The girl's bike.
Or

The girls' bike.

Or

The girls bike.

I can see that the apostrophe makes a difference and each of the sentence tells you whose bike it is - except the absence of an apostrophe in the last one does not tell you whose bike it is.

But 17 years experience or 17 years' experience - I don't think anyone is going to get confused by how much experience the person has. So the apostrophe isn't needed to confirm anything.

It may be technically correct but not having it will not lead to any confusion.

I look at it without the apostrophe and think it's either a typo or the author has poor spag

Maybe we should visit this in a week's time or 2 weeks' time or 3 weeks time?