Help! Do I say "years' and years' worth of clutter" or "years and years' worth"? - i.e. do I need just one apostrophe or two?

Rosy

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It might sound a weird and rather clumsy phrase, but it's dialogue and it feels right in context. It's what the person would say.

I would go for the second one - one apostrophie.

Now there's a tricky one! Logic suggests apotstrophes on both, but I'd be inclined to just have the latter one, thinking of it as a unit: "years-and-years' worth of clutter", if you see what I mean!

Emma

That was kind of what I thought.

Thanks.

You could dodge the issue and write: "a decade's worth of clutter".

Cheers, Grinder

I know, I know, Grinder. Or, the accumulated clutter of many years, etc, etc. But you know how it is with dialogue. You hear in your head the rhythm of the character's speech and how he would express it, and it feels right - and then you want to put it that way, and not change it just because you get in a muddle with the apostrpphe(s).

Let the copy editor decide, I reckon. But I know how fellow pedants on here love a good grammar/punctuation teaser to argue about!

I'd go with the logic - apostrophes on both. Let's face it, 95% of readers won't notice whether you've used apostrophes or not anyway, so you may as well be logical.

Deb