About the possessive 's

[Haihao]

Hi,

I have come across a sentence like:

It's not our children's fault. It's the education system.

Although the second half means it's the education system's or it's the education system's fault but here, on the contrary, it seems more natural and smooth without the 's.

Is it simply because it's too 'long' to hold an 's or it's an oral expression or does it need other grammatical explanations?

haihao

[Tom]

Hi Haihao

It's not my fault. It's just bad luck. (bad luck is the fault)

[Alan]

Hi Haihao,

As usual you've come up with another fine point. The omission of the 's does sound better as the meaning is not compromised. Perhaps this could be rewritten as:

It's not our children's fault. It's the education system that's at fault.

A
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Don't bank on it

[Haihao]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for the tip, which really made me ponder on it for a while and inspired me a lot.

Hi, Alan,

Thank you for your lucid interpretation again, which made me feel like 'Yes! Eureka!... In fact, after reading Tom's comment, I tried myself to rewrite the sentence as: It's not our children's fault. It's the education system that's the fault. But that sounded a little dull. Now I have got the reason and understand that 'at fault' is indispensable if you don't want the meaning to be compromised and do want a 'peace of mind'.

haihao