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RUGUY22 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Two-week notice, two-weeks notice, or two weeks' notice?

Which is it? To my understanding, if I want to indicate my resignation to someone, I would say "I just handed my boss a two-week notice." However, I have seen others say "I just handed my boss a two weeks' notice." Are both of these acceptable? How should I know when to make something a compound phrase vs. a possessive one.

The only time I would use the latter form (possessive) is if I had said "I will be sure to give at least two weeks' notice."

Is my understanding correct?

Other examples:

"I just had my six-month review." or "I just had my six months' review."

Thank you!
  

Top answer

" Thank you! When you have a subject noun in this kind of construction, this case being REVIEW, the compound adjective such as 3 -week vacation, 6-month salary, or a 3-day Disney Pass, the plural "s" is not needed.

— Grammarfreak

  • " Thank you!
  • When you have a subject noun in this kind of construction, this case being REVIEW, the compound adjective such as 3 -week vacation, 6-month salary, or a 3-day Disney Pass, the plural "s" is not needed.
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5 Answers
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RUGUY22"I just had my six-month review." or "I just had my six months' review."
Thank you!
When you have a subject noun in this kind of construction, this case being REVIEW, the compound adjective such as 3 -week vacation, 6-month salary, or a 3-day Disney Pass, the plural "s" is not ne
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Neither of your suggestions for the first sentence is correct. It should be "I just handed my boss two weeks' notice."

"I just had my six-month review." is correct.
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"I just handed my boss two weeks' notice" simply does not sound correct to me. Please explain how "I just handed my boss a two-week notice" is incorrect. To my understanding, the "two-week" is a compound adjective modifying the noun "notice." Am I missing something?

As I mentioned, the only time I would use the possessive form is if I said something along the lines of "My boss expects me
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This is an uncountable sense of "notice". It is thus incorrect in this case to refer to "a notice", hence also incorrect to refer to "a two-week notice". However, "a two-week notice" is grammatically well formed and might conceivably make sense in some other context.
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AnonymousThis is an uncountable sense of "notice". It is thus incorrect in this case to refer to "a notice", hence also incorrect to refer to "a two-week notice". However, "a two-week notice" is grammatically well formed and might conceivably make sense in some other context.
That makes since. Thank you for the explanation.
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