A shopper's holiday

Question

I am wondering if ‘a shopper’s holiday’ below is correct.‘a shoppers’ holiday’ is correct or better, isn’t it?In Japan, Christmas is not a religious holiday — it’s a shopper’s holiday. Department stores, supermarkets, and shops of all kinds, large and small, hold huge sales.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Koji from JapanI am wondering if ‘a shopper’s holiday’ below is correct.

Yes, it's fine.

Koji from Japan‘a shoppers’ holiday’ is correct or better, isn’t it?

Also correct, but not used as much as the first one above.

shopper's in this context is used almost three times as often as shoppers'.

Not even native speakers of English agree completely on this matter. The majority see "a" as part of "a shopper", which then together takes the 's. In this way, the "a" does not apply to "holiday". English has no way of applying an article on each of two elements, so [a shopper]'s [a holiday] is impossible. The article almost always applies to the first noun. The only way to get around it is to use a holiday for shoppers, and in your sentence that would spoil the parallel structure you have set up.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Koji from JapanI am wondering if ‘a shopper’s holiday’ below is correct.

Yes. To construe "shopper" as plural is overliteral and overnice, even hypercorrect, and it is a mistake arising from the fact that it sounds plural when you form the expression in the regular way, "a shopper's holiday". It is like "a ploughman's lunch", a lunch characteristic of the ploughman, not a lunch eaten by ploughmen.

A shopper's holiday

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