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Anonymous Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

'our school lunch' vs. 'our school's lunch' grammar question. Please help!

Recently, one of my English students (middle school in Korea) got this question wrong. We believe that her answer can also pass grammatically. The school teacher has deducted a hefty 8 marks from her test and she is quite upset about it. Any ideas would be much appreciated!


Student wrote: Our school lunch is very good.


Teacher said that only 'Our school's lunch is very good' can be an acceptable answer.


The teacher maintains that since the school provides the lunch, it must be in the possessive form. However, I believe that since the school provides the lunch, we can simply call it 'school lunch'. Is this only colloquial usage or can it be grammatically correct? Thanks in advance!

  

Top answer

Anonymous Student wrote: Our school lunch is very good. That is native. Anonymous Teacher said that only 'Our school's lunch is very good' can be an acceptable answer.

— Mister Micawber

  • Anonymous Student wrote: Our school lunch is very good.
  • That is native.
  • Anonymous Teacher said that only 'Our school's lunch is very good' can be an acceptable answer.
  • That is non-native.
  • It is not the school that eats the lunch.
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1 Answers
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AnonymousStudent wrote: Our school lunch is very good.

That is native.

AnonymousTeacher said that only 'Our school's lunch is very good' can be an acceptable answer.

That is non-native. It is not the school that eats the lunch. It is a 'school lunch', a 'government subsidy', a 'hospital patient', etc.

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