Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Do I have to use the apostrophe in "patients' data"?
Hi! I have a question about the Saxon genitive. If I want to say "the data of the patients", can I say "patients data" or should I put the apostrophe? I'm asking because I can see that there are also many occurrences without the apostrophe on the internet, but I know that Google and other browsers do not handle punctuation very well. This question is linked to another sentence with the same problem: should I say "examinations data" or "examinations' data" to say "data of the examinations"? There are many occurrences online, without the apostrophe. Thanks for your explanation
Top answer
You have two choices: patients' data and patient data . Both refer to multiple patients. Since an examination is not sentient, you have only one choice in that case: examination data .
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You have two choices: patients' data and patient data. Both refer to multiple patients. Since an examination is not sentient, you have only one choice in that case: examination data.
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