Plural Noun Possessing Individual Singular Nouns?
Let's say there is a group of people called the "Knights of England", and each of these people has their own bloodline. Let's also say you can abbreviate that group as just "the Knights".
If I wanted to refer to those bloodlines, keeping in mind that these knights are not related and do not share a single bloodline, which of the following phrases would be correct, if any?
a. The Knights of England's bloodline
b. The Knights of England's bloodlines
c. The bloodline of the Knights of England
d. The bloodlines of the Knights of England
e. The Knights' bloodline
f. The Knights' bloodlines
Would the context of there being many knights and it being unlikely that they all share the same bloodline have any bearing on whether A, C, or E are correct?
My understanding is that only B, D, and F would be correct, and A, C, and E would imply that the bloodline is shared among the Knights, regardless of context. Is this understanding correct?
Top answer
I agree with your thoughts; as soon as you refer to 'bloodline' then you are referring to just the one shared bloodline. This doesn't exist, of course. Therefore all of the plural versions will be okay, whereas the singular ones will not.
- I agree with your thoughts; as soon as you refer to 'bloodline' then you are referring to just the one shared bloodline.
- This doesn't exist, of course.
- Therefore all of the plural versions will be okay, whereas the singular ones will not.
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I agree with your thoughts; as soon as you refer to 'bloodline' then you are referring to just the one shared bloodline. This doesn't exist, of course.
Therefore all of the plural versions will be okay, whereas the singular ones will not.
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