Which is correct? (Jack London's life and writings are thought by many to...)

[nessie]

Hi,
Please judge which of the following is correct:

1. Jack London's life and writings are thought by many to represent the American's love of adventure

2. Jack London's life and writings are thought by many to represent American love of adventure

3. Jack London's life and writings are thought by many to represent American's love of adventure

4. Jack London's life and writings are thought by many to represent the American love of adventure

(I personally think 1,3 and 4 are correct)
Many thanks
_________________
... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know..

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

[Jamie (K)]

The clearly correct ones are 1, 2 and 4, but 1 is iffy.

Number 1 can be improved by changing American's to Americans'.

Number 3 is quite wrong, but you could correct it also by changing American's to Americans'.

The best one is 4, in my opinion.

[Molly]

[Jamie (K)]

[nessie]

[Jamie (K)]

Nessie, look up the "conditional mood" (or just the "conditional") in a grammar book. That will explain things.

[nessie]

Thanks a lot, Jamie.
Actually I've learnt the conditional mood, but I'm just not used to sentences in conditional mood without "if". Do you mean this in your sentence:

Number 3 is quite wrong, but if you changed "American's" to "Americans'", you could improve it.

Many thanks
Nessie