whichenglish.com welcomes correspondence and suggestions
I'm sure that there may be somethings that you might want to get off your chest about this site. Or you may just want to comment or make suggestions. If so, this is where a selection of your correspondence will appear.
years experience or years' experience?
Hi, Should this be:
Is a statistician with many years research experience
Or
Is a statistician with many years’ research experience
I look forward to you response.
Best wishes, Elizabeth D (27 Jan 2010)
Hi Elizabeth,
It should be "Is a statistician with many years’ research experience", which is the same as "...with many years of research experience". If it was one year, it would be"...with one year's research experience".
"BARE" in mind, or "BEAR" in mind?
Hello, Perhaps you could help. Which spelling should one use: "BARE" in mind or "BEAR" in mind?
Regards, John Chalkley
Thanks for your question John. As strange as it may seem, bear is the correct answer in this case. I say strange because we are used to thinking of bear in terms of the animal. The second word, bare, means "unclothed or without addition".
The word bear features in many phrases, including the one one you asked about. The bear in bear in mind means "carry or conduct in a certain manner". Other common phrases using bear (not bare) are: bear arms, bear fruit, bear the brunt of, bear a resemblance, bear witness, a cross to bear and grin and bear it.
