Can anyone advise which of the following sentences is the most proper?
(a) Human's attempt to improve corn's production never ends.
(b) Human's attempt to improve corn production never ends.
(c) Human attempt to improve corn's production never ends.
Human attempts to improve corn production never end.
Eliminate the possessives (all those 's 's 's s' ) and sometimes English becomes clearer.
Joe
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Craven de Kere
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 03:51 am
I'd replace Human with Man's.
Joe gave a great answer but let me explain why:
The use of possessives is unnecessary and in the case of 'corn's production' just plain wrong.
To simplify the issue you would note that the production is not owned by corn. Corn describes the word production.
'Human's attempts' is technically correct but using an adjective instead of a possessive in this case makes it clearer, as Joe noted.
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Roberta
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 05:17 am
Hi MML and welcome to a2k. I'd go with "Human's attempts to improve corn production never end."
I wouldn't change "human" to "man." If you're not happy with "human's," try "people's."
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Frank Apisa
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 06:12 am
Joe Nation wrote:
Human attempts to improve corn production never end.
Eliminate the possessives (all those 's 's 's s' ) and sometimes English becomes clearer.
Joe
BINGO!
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gustavratzenhofer
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 06:24 am
Mankind will never stop the eternal struggle to increase corn production. It is the essence of our being.
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MML
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 09:14 am
Thanks all.
It's great coming to a2k. The warm responses are impressive.
I'll simply use either of the following sentences:
"Human attempts to improve corn production never end." or
"Human's attempts to improve corn production never end."
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McTag
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 09:56 am
I'm with Joe.
And simple is best. And "human" is understood, animals don't do it.
So how about "Efforts to improve cereal production never end."
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joefromchicago
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 10:00 am
McTag wrote:
I'm with Joe.
And simple is best. And "human" is understood, animals don't do it.
So how about "Efforts to improve cereal production never end."
I concur.
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MML
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Fri 19 Sep, 2003 10:13 am
McTag wrote:
I'm with Joe.
And simple is best. And "human" is understood, animals don't do it.
So how about "Efforts to improve cereal production never end."
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