Is this sentence grammatically correct..?

[Scarletohello]

I have a feeling it isn't but I could be wrong. This was just a question on The Chaser so would assume it would have been checked...

Which of these country's flags is not a tricolour?

This was a multiple choice question so there were 3 countries to choose from.

What do you think..?

Countries'

I bloody knew it! Disgraceful. I mean if a massively popular TV show which is about getting things right, gets it wrong, what hope is there..?

< and yes I know I'm a pedant but it really bugs me! >

Agree. Highly annoying. Just came back from the zoo where a large printed sign announced something about the "animals habitat". Practically ruined my afternoon!

Hideous. We live on the coast and lots of local seafront establishments have put their new signs out advertising their"tea's and coffee's". Then there is my absolute favourite....."sandwich's". Eughhh!

Good to know I'm not alone and that at least a few people care. Most don't seem to..:(

Definitely should be "countries'" and that would really annoy me too.

It is grammatically correct. It is the punctuation that is incorrect. Grammar relates to the syntax of a sentence, and is quite different to spelling and punctuation.

'Which of these countries' flags are not a tricolour?' would be ungrammatical.

Agree with RedRoom. It's grammatically correct with poor punctuation. But hey, punctuation is a moveable feast!

Spoken language has grammar. Written language has grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Hmmm confused now. So which is it?

As written, it's incorrect punctuation and spelling. If it were spoken, it would be correct because there would be no punctuation and spelling to contend with.

It should definitely be countries' - plural countries, possessive apostrophe. You can check it by changing word-order and using "of" instead of the apostrophe: "the flag of which of these countys is not a tricolour" - that way the spelling mistake is obvious.

Interested to know what people think should be different about the punctuation though - don't have a problem with that, personally.

and I should have typed "countrys" rather than "countys" then....

Hmm, I'd have said that it is grammatically incorrect because "these country" is incorrect - plural demonstrative with singular noun. In this case the punctuation mark (apostrophe) also serves a grammatical purpose.

But because country's and countries sound the same you could also argue that it's incorrect spelling/punctuation. So in fact it's wrong on all three levels :-)

PS I'm pretty sure that grammar relates to more than just syntax, which is word order. Though in English grammar and syntax are often inextricably linked, in other languages (e.g Latin) it's not necessarily the case.