children's ticket or child's ticket

In all of these, the singular would be better as describing one item = a child's ticket/woman's bag/man's suit.

You would use a plural with plural items: children's tickets/women's bags/men's suits.
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Interesting. I would have answered the opposite.

I see it as applying to "the category of children" or "the class of things attributed to women" and would use the plura.

If I heard "My friend is not very feminine. She prefers to go to formal dinners in a man's suit" I would be wondering which man lent her his suit. But if I heard "in a men's suit" I would assume you just mean "th

Hi,
interesting. I just thought about this yesterday, and I took a quick look on the net to find out more. The problem is that I think I sometimes come across singular nouns used that way, when I expected the plural... but maybe it's because I haven't paid much attention so far. Anyway, in a thread in another forum someone asked about "a child's program on TV", and they all agreed it should b

Just another good example of the exceedingly flexible nature of English.

Exactly! Because you refer to something very simple as "Child's play" not "children's play."

Very confusing... even for the native speakers!

Yep, but I guess "child's play" is an idiom, since it's usually listed as an entry in dictionaries for learners. As for the original question, there might well be regional differences, between the US and the UK for example.

I think it is the purpose that determines the use of singular or plural. Try expanding the possessive forms and you'll get
child's play ---> it's easy even for a child, a single child

children's programme ---> a programme for many children, no one would produce a TV programme for a single child
men's suit ---> a suit designed for all men (tal