Patients' or patient's
Hi all,
This sentence is a source of debate in our group. Is it patient's or patients' in the example below?
"Operative procedures may impact the patients’ ability to execute a productive cough."
We are speaking about operative procedures and its effect on cough production as a whole, but I believe the word 'the' here implies it is each individual's ability. - just didn't it again
Thank you!
Top answer
It's patient's . (It's each individual's ability, but it's not related to 'the'. It's more that you can't have multiple patients execute one cough.
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It's patient's.
(It's each individual's ability, but it's not related to 'the'. It's more that you can't have multiple patients execute one cough. Each patient has to execute his own cough.)
CJ
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