Confusion with plural and possesive "s"

Question

Hello,which version of the following sentence is correct?A central register of employee accidents should be implemented.A central register of employees accidents should be implemented.A central register of employee's accidents should be implemented.It would also be good to understand why. For me the first one feels correct but I'm not a native speaker. I would say the second one is incorrect because there is already a plural "s" and we are not referring to multiple accidents including multiple employees. The third one seems weird to me, because it's also the "human genome" and not the "human's genome". Thanks in advance for any helpful comments!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Phil 30161A central register of employee accidents should be implemented.

Good. Here you are using a compound noun (two nouns). This is a very common structure in English.

Another way to talk about it is to say that the noun 'employee' modifies the noun 'accidents'.

Phil 30161A central register of employees accidents should be implemented.

This is another attempt to form a compound noun, but it's not correct. In a compound noun the first noun is always singular.

(There are only a few exceptions, such as "sports equipment".)

Phil 30161A central register of employee's accidents should be implemented.

This is a possessive noun with another noun. The possessive is singular (employee's). The possessive plural would be employees'.

If you make a register of each accident that any employee has, you will need the plural: A central register of employees' accidents should be implemented.

If the register only has data regarding one employee, you need a determiner and the singular: A central register of the employee's accidents should be implemented.

This latter case seems highly unlikely.

CJ

Confusion with plural and possesive "s"

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