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One of the partners' birthday or
One of the partner's birthday
Which do you prefer and why?
I think we have discussed this before but I can't remember what the consensus (ha!) was, and anyway with a different panel we might get a different consensus.
Bingley
Bingley
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The former, simply because it is the birthday of "one of the partners". However, I think I would have said "One of the partners' birthdays", though I'm not sure why.
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I don't quite know Bingley, but I am thinking, neither.
I would either use:
A partner's birthday, or
One of the partners' birthdays.
If it happens to be the birthday of one of the partners, then I would use the article 'A' in front.
When I use, 'One of', I am picking one out of the collective many and in this case, the collective is represented by the plural, partners.
An apostrophe, to signify the possessive case, will be out of place in this context, I think.
Shall clock in again at a better time and see if what I just said makes sense.
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DD:
The phrase "one of the partners' birthday" is in fact correct. Assume it's in the sentence: Today is one of the partners' birthday.
That sentence is grammatically equal to: Today is the birthday of one of the partners." The phrase "one of the partners" in its entirety takes the possessive when moved from behind the of to in front of the word birthday.
You would not say "Today is the birthdays of one of the partners" which is how you would have to recast the sentence "Today is one of the partners' birthdays."
When faced with a dilemma like this, it's always to try to recast the sentence for clarity.
TEd
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That's a real poser, Bingley. Glad you brought it up. I agree with the plural possessive form. As TEd said, The phrase "one of the partners" in its entirety takes the possessive.... This construction is similar to one I brought up a while back: He is one of those people who...". This takes the plural verb, though many here disagreed and probably still disagree. 
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>though many here disagreed and probably still disagree. but ASp, how are we to take *anyone seriously who lets the following slip through her editor's purview: ...and an examination of his development as an young artist.- The Bookpress, Dec. 2002
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I *didn't proof that page, nuncle!!  Glad you're reading so closely, though....
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I bet this has been disscussed before but what I don't get is: If adding an 's can be for something that is possesive as well as a shortening of 'is', then why isn't an 's added to 'its' when that's possesive? e.g: Its head, not it's head? And what else does this apply to except with 'it'? I just confused myself
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>And what else does this apply to except with 'it'?
all personal pronouns! (and this has been discussed before, ron added extraneously)
e.g., yours, his, hers, theirs, mine :)
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