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#2 (permalink) Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:36 am About the possessive 's |
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Hi Haihao
It's not my fault. It's just bad luck. (bad luck is the fault)
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| It's not our children's fault. It's the education system. |
Maybe education system is the fault.
Just my two cents! :oops:
Tom |
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Tom I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 2103
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#3 (permalink) Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:55 am About the possessive 's |
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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 Present Simple |
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Alan Co-founder

Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 13891 Location: UK
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#4 (permalink) Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:15 am About the possessive 's |
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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'. :D
haihao |
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Haihao I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 2471 Location: Japan
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| 'Time' vs 'timing' | "Do you have" vs. "Have you" |