Talk:hen's teeth

Ungrammatical for the idiom

I have shifted most of the content to hens' teeth, which is the grammatically correct version.

You can convince yourself of this by considering the following

1. "I found women's purses strewn all over the yard." — correct grammar: plural "women" and no article
2. "I found woman's purses strewn all over the yard." — incorrect grammar: singular "woman" and no article
3. "I found a/the woman's purses strewn all over the yard." — correct grammar: singular "woman" with article

Structure 1 is the one that applies to "hens' teeth": we are talking about a plurality of purses (or teeth), and we do not intend to say that they relate to one individual woman (or hen), but rather to women (or hens) in general.

Structure 2 is how the idiom was erroneously recorded for "hen's teeth". (Which I have now amended.)

Structure 3 is grammatically correct, but suggests that we have knowledge that all of the purses (or teeth) relate to one individual woman (or hen).
Maybe there are some people who use modified idioms like "Did you find the hen's tooth/teeth today?", but it doesn't match the most common idioms.

—DIV (1.129.110.237 07:46, 9 July 2019 (UTC))