noun+noun or possessive?

Question

I got confused with the following: according to R.Murphy we should say 'a four-week course' or 'a three-hour journey', whereas further he writes: 'We also use -s` with plural words for periods of time: Julia has got three weeks` holiday. It`s ten minutes` walk.'
So my 1st question is 'Are both options (i.e. 'a four-week course' and 'four weeks` course') grammatically correct?' And my second one is 'What`s happened with an article in 'Julia has got three weeks` holiday'? I mean, why can`t/shouldn`t we put any before `three weeks`?

GPY · Accepted Answer

First, may I point out that you are using the wrong character for the apostrophe. You are using a grave accent `, whereas it should be (in ordinary computing use) the same character as you use for the single quote '

"Julia has three weeks' holiday" has no article for the same reason that "Julia has Angela's pen" has no article. The possessive noun functions as a determiner, so we don't need another one. The list of nouns that work naturally in the pattern like "three weeks' holiday" or "ten minutes' walk" is probably not tremendously long, and "course" is not one of them. I am not sure that there is any rule-based way to determine which nouns work. Possibly you just have to learn them through experience.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Paul EvdokimovWhat`s happened with an article in 'Julia has got three weeks` holiday'? I mean, why can`t/shouldn`t we put any before `three weeks`?

There are two different versions of this:

Julia has three weeks' holiday. I use this to mean that each year, Julia is entitled to 15 days of holiday time (5 days per week.)

Julia is planning a three-week holiday. I use this to mean that Julia will take one holiday that is three weeks long Note that "three-week" hyphenated is a modifier, not a determiner.

Here are other examples:
Joe jumped a six-foot fence and ran a three-mile race.

noun+noun or possessive?

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