Tuesday, 3 November 2015

meaning - Plural Possessive of a Singular Noun

"Words' development" is correct. "Word" is singular, not plural, which may be the source of the confusion.



As used here, "Development" is a single, general condition common to all "words" (i.e., the development of all words, collectively) and does not need to be pluralized. If we were talking about the unique development of individual words and not all words collectively, then, yes, "development" would be pluralized.



Let me give you a similar example: "The cows' trouble is poor feed." We do not pluralize "troubles" because the trouble is common to all the cows.

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