In ten days' or days time? (2025)

Hi all,

which expression is correct? Wich one, if both are correct, is more formal?

Most people seem to use "in ten days time", but one sometimes one also reads the apostrophed version "in ten days' time".

Thanks!!

Why Not?

Why Not? said:

Hi all,

which expression is correct? Wich one, if both are correct, is more formal?

Most people seem to use "in ten days time", but one sometimes one also reads the apostrophed version "in ten days' time".

Thanks!!

Why Not?

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I have seen this discrepancy as well, however, I write it as:

"In ten days time, we will be going on holiday".

To me "days" is not possessive with respect to time. I think of it as:

"In a time of 10 days, we will..."

Personally, I try not to use the expression "... days time" because it is redundant (and very old-fashioned) although it is still heard. It is enough to simply say:

"In ten days, we will be going on holiday"

Why Not? said:

Hi all,

which expression is correct? Wich one, if both are correct, is more formal?

Most people seem to use "in ten days time", but one sometimes one also reads the apostrophed version "in ten days' time".

Thanks!!

Why Not?

Click to expand...

The style guide for Guardian Unlimited shows a distinction between adjectival and adverbial terms, which leads to a useful test:

Use apostrophes in phrases such as in two days' time, 12 years' imprisonment and six weeks' holiday, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in nine months pregnant or three weeks old, where the time period is adverbial (modifying an adjective such as pregnant or old) - if in doubt, test with a singular such as one day's time, one month pregnant

Click to expand...

The style guide for Guardian Unlimited shows a distinction between adjectival and adverbial terms, which leads to a useful test:

Use apostrophes in phrases such as in two days' time, 12 years' imprisonment and six weeks' holiday, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in nine months pregnant or three weeks old, where the time period is adverbial (modifying an adjective such as pregnant or old) - if in doubt, test with a singular such as one day's time, one month pregnant

Click to expand...

Darn it, I knew this was an issue for me, as well! Notwithstanding adjectival and adverbial terms, I can't for the life of me understand how "years" can possess "imprisonment". What is the difference between 12 years of imprisonment and nine months of pregnancy (no irony intended!)? This is more of a rhetorical question, mplsray, because you've explained it very well based on grammatical rules... I've just never really understood the logic (or lack thereof!) behind it. Just one of those rules I'll have to memorize and not understand!

Dimcl said:

Darn it, I knew this was an issue for me, as well! Notwithstanding adjectival and adverbial terms, I can't for the life of me understand how "years" can possess "imprisonment". What is the difference between 12 years of imprisonment and nine months of pregnancy (no irony intended!)? This is more of a rhetorical question, mplsray, because you've explained it very well based on grammatical rules... I've just never really understood the logic (or lack thereof!) behind it. Just one of those rules I'll have to memorize and not understand!

Click to expand...

The real problem here is referring to the possessive case using the term possessive.

Consider the boy's dog. If the dog is actually the property of the boy's father, then the boy cannot be said to own the dog. Nor does it make sense to say that the father is owned by the boy. Nor, for that matter, in the case of the father's son, can the father be said to own his son—not in this part of the world, anyway. It would be better to replace the term possessive case with genitive case. That term also has the potential to mislead, but only to those who look up its etymology, unlike possessive, whose meaning can easily mislead a much larger group of people.

By the way, The Gregg Reference Manual, 9th ed., by William A. Sabin, New York: Glencoe/McGraw Hill, © 2001, which does advise against such usages as the barrel's bottom and the terminal's lower level says,

In many common expressions that refer to time and measurements, however, and in phrases implying personification, the possessive form has come to be accepted usage.

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Why Not? said:

Hi all,

which expression is correct? Wich one, if both are correct, is more formal?

Most people seem to use "in ten days time", but one sometimes one also reads the apostrophed version "in ten days' time".

Thanks!!

Why Not?

Click to expand...

Simple test. What would you say for the singular?

I'll see you in one day's time.
or
I'll see you in one day time.

I had one week's vacation
or
I had one week vacation

Thus
"She'll see in you ten days' time".
"She had ten weeks' vacation".

Just to confuse things.
I had a one-week vacation.
She had a ten-week vacation.

Brioche said:

Simple test. What would you say for the singular?

I'll see you in one day's time.
or
I'll see you in one day time.

I had one week's vacation
or
I had one week vacation

Thus
"She'll see in you ten days' time".
"She had ten weeks' vacation".

Just to confuse things.
I had a one-week vacation.
She had a ten-week vacation.

Click to expand...

Also, although the length of time is plural the vacation could be singular, so be careful not to confuse
"She had ten weeks' vacation" - multiple vacations totalling ten weeks
with
"She had a ten week vacation" - a single vacation of ten weeks

Either way, I only get 5 weeks a year, the lucky so and so!

Hi,

So would a three months' journey be correct? (Though I suppose that a three-month journey would also be possible.)