I have two weeks leave
- Thread starter sinukg
- Start date
What would you have said if it were only one, not two?
I'm sure you will see 'two weeks leave', but 'two weeks' leave' is correct.
Indeed, and "one week's leave". Change the noun "leave" to the adjective "off", and the possessive reverts to subjective case:
I have one week (or two weeks) off.
I have one week (or two weeks) off.
I would have said "I've one week leave."
And you would have been wrong.
Periods of time are (strangely) the only common case, except for human beings and groups of humans, where an apostrophe-s is used. A week's leave... a day's notice... two month's holiday... tomorrow's newspapers... etc.
I'd like to ask one question here. Please see thread three. There heypresto wrote "two weeks' leave". The apostrophe came after "s". But you wrote "two month's" leave. Here the apostrophe came before "s". Please tell me which one should I follow.
Heypresto. I mis-typed, sorry.
From the grammar books (like the one by Raymond Murphy) I remember that it should be a "two-week leave."
Thanks a lot for clarifying my confusion.
That would be very rare.
Leave (= time off work) is uncountable, so that doesn’t work. But you can replace the possessive modifier with a hyphenated attributive one if you use a countable noun, such as: a two-week break/holiday/trip.