Calling all pedants: I need help writing reports!

[SleepingLion]

As an English teacher, I cannot make mistakes in my reports; I will be banished from the school and forced to dwell in shameful exile forever. So I need the might of MN pedants to clarify something I am never sure about.

'At times, we have tried each others patience.'

Should there be an apostrophe in 'others'? I just don't know!

I would say yes. The patience belongs to the others. But "each others" implies there is more than one other person, so it would be others', rather than other's. I may, however, be talking out of my arse .

Yep, other's.

Thank you! I will go with other's and pray I don't get the 'P45 in the post' email

I would say others'.

It's singular so it's other's.

'At times, we have tried each other's patience!'

Do you really want to write that?!

other's

The patience belongs to each other.

What context is it in? I agree with Adair - what are you saying and who is it about?

So what you are actually saying is "this child is badly behaved?"

If it's about 'you' and one other person, than it's other's.

If it's about the whole family, for example, it will be others'.

Adair - why would I not want to write it?! He has tried my patience and I am absolutely sure I have tried his with my petty insistence on handing homework in, etc...

Dunno, just doesn't seem that constructive, that's all. Am assuming there's a 'however' coming next. I'd probably want to be more specific about the issues. But then, if your reports are like ours, you've got just two sentences (and limited word count) to sum up everything from the past year .

You would say "each person's" and "each cat's" patience, for instance, and in this case the other person has tried your patience and you've tried the other's. If the phrase was "both others" it would have to be "tried both others' patience". But it isn't.

IMHO.

Personally, I'd go for 'you have been a little swine and you know it'

Depends how many others you are talking about - is it one other, or a group?

Ah, you have my sympathies then. Gosh, how annoying for you - what is the point of doing a report when they are about to do their exam?! Surely it's 'Turn up. With A Pen. Answer the questions. Warning: You might not get an A even if you do all the above.'