Korean Job Discussion Forums

[desultude]

This week my students asked me about the following constructions:

"A five hour walk" vs "a five hours' walk"

and "three hours' work

To me the first, a five hour walk, is correct in that "five hour" becomes a noun phrase acting as an adjective (sorry if I haven't identified it exactly grammatically).

In terms of three hours' work, the genetive is to show the relationship (sort of like possessive) of the length of time to the work.

But, what is the difference between the cases, and why?

I have just finished their class, and haven't done much research on my own yet, but this sort of discussion on the board seems to be very fruitful, so I am interesting in the discussion as well as the answer.

[schwa]

I think "a five-hour walk" requires a hyphen.

"A five hours' walk" seems okay too, the genitive case maybe deriving from "a walk of five hours"?

But the first option seems cleaner, especially if written.

But "three hours work" strikes me as acceptable too, without the apostrophe.

Its a fine point youre pursuing here!

[desultude]