In the previous year, consumers' savings had decreased.
or
In the previous year, consumer savings had decreased.
Which one is valid and why?
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3 Answers
You can say either, depending on the context. The term consumer savings is used by economists to describe broad trends in the behavior of a population. But you could use consumers' savings to refer to a specific set of consumers apart from the general populace.
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You can say either, because they sound much the same anyway. But I personally don't think I've ever seen the apostrophe'd form. And even though it's grammatically defensible, I think I'd just classify it as a grocers' apostrophe (I don't have any preference between grocers' and grocer's though!) Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 15:32
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@FumbleFingers: Agreed. Still, it is possible to construct a legitimate English sentence using the apostrophe, so I opted to include it.– RobustoCommented Apr 3, 2011 at 15:36
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Well I'm certainly not going to get in a sparring match with you over what constitutes a valid utterance! I'm just indicating my preference for the uninflected form in the vast majority of contexts. A preference which I think you share, but didn't particularly call attention to in your answer. Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 16:36
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@Fumblefingers: What part of "Agreed" made you think I was looking for a sparring match?– RobustoCommented Apr 3, 2011 at 16:41
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Nothing at all! That's I italicised you! My apologies if it came across as a 'back-handed' compliment. Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 17:41
Curiously, I hit exactly the same question with one of my children. We were in a hotel eating breakfast. He asked why this was called a hotel restaurant, rather than hotel's restaurant. It is a grammatical feature called apposition.
answered Apr 4, 2011 at 2:49
In this case, the word 'consumer' (no apostrophe) acts as a qualifier to the word 'savings'.
So, we begin with the head word 'savings' and explain what savings we are taking about by using the word 'consumer'.
'Consumer' then, performs much the same job as the determiner 'those'. We could say
those savings
and the grammatical structure would be quite the same.
Therefore, while you could say 'consumer's savings', the term you are after here is consumer savings.
N.B.: Generally, 'consumer's savings' would be preceded by the article 'the', as The Consumers in this sense would be a specific group of people, outlined elsewhere in its context.
