Jennifer was trembling as she entered Andrew's and Lucy’s bedroom.

Or:

Jennifer was trembling as she entered Andrew and Lucy’s bedroom.

Confused of Dublin

Jennifer was trembling as she entered Andrew and Lucy’s bedroom.

This does sound more sensible, doesn't it, even though it's less logical. Or recast it. If Jennifer was a bloke, of course, it would be open to misinterpretation...

Emma

This does sound more sensible, doesn't it, even though it's less logical

I've been trying to rewrite the whole thing to get to "their bedroom" but it makes the ownership ambiguous... which is even worse.

<Added>

Got it... the bedroom.

I reckon your first version was correct, although I suspect my English teacher at school would have marked it 'Clumsy - rewrite'.

The logic is that the bedroom belongs to both Andrew and Lucy, so both names need to go into the possessive form (i.e. with the 's on the end).

Alex

Hi Alex,
I can't fault your logic, nor the accusation of clumsiness.

Trouble is, the obvious resolution leads to an infinite regression of definition and counter definition as I define my linguistic variables.

G

Jennifer was trembling as she entered the bedroom of Andrew and Lucy.

Marvlious.

Hi Gaius,

I've been guilty of the same style of clumsiness, hence my certainty over how my English teacher would have marked it

I don't really understand your confusion over this, though. It seems pretty clear-cut and unambiguous, to me, even though the second version that you suggested sounds like a more common usage. If someone had written the same sentence in German or Russian, no one would even be quibbling over whether the two names should both go in the genative. The English possessive is essentially the same thing.

Leila's suggestion is a neat alternative, though. That's how you would say it in French, for example.

Alex

Alex,

I don't really understand your confusion over this

I think the main problem is that, unike you, I was never formally taught English grammar - the first time I encountered the term "verb" was in a French lesson. Ditto tenses.

The first is logically correct to me but the second _sounds_ correct and, without having a memory of interesting English teachers, it is amazing how persuasive sound can be.

Am just off to Google genitive...
Gaius

Ps:

After being dipped in liquid nitrogen then gollumphed by a wrecking ball, Jennifer was shattered as she entered Andrew's and Lucy's bedrooms (shards also reached the understairs cupboard).

Ahem.

<Added>

Gollumph (to violently smash into teensy little bits) as distinct from the more usual galumph (to gallop in triumph, to tread heavily etc)

I was never formally taught English grammar

Me neither. I only deduced how it worked from learning French and Russian at school.

Alex

Me neither.

Weird we should both be writers!

Weird also that despite lack of formal grammar, my written English was still good enough to get work as a tech-writer for my first career job.

However neither that nor my French/German O levels taught me much (language teaching was abysmal too) so I worked out a lot of my grammar from placing parentheses and ordering operators in programming.

G

I think it was Russian that helped me most. It has very strict grammatical rules, and 6 cases (like Latin), so when learning it you either come to a very good understanding of grammatical concepts, or else you find you can't do it at all.

I've found that, with languages even more than with any other skill, self-belief is crucial. The people who find languages hardest are those who convince themselves they can't learn one (despite obvious evidence to the contrary - everyone learns their own language within a couple of years, without even being taught it formally).

What really sorted me out, linguistically, was going on a French exchange at the age of 15 and finding myself having a conversation with a 4-year-old French boy. I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, at the time, and found myself thinking, 'Well, if he can do it, so can I'.

Alex

Think I've found the source of my confusion.

Colloquially, a couple become an item when they become an item so to speak. Eg Andrew and Lucy are treated as Andrew&Lucy for all practical purposes such as dinner parties, holidays and bedroom allocation.

Andrew and Lucy's meaning is illogical, Andrew&Lucy's meaning is not.

To my ears entering Andrew and Lucy's bedroom has a double entendre embedded in it, so I'd say Andrew's and Lucy's but would probably try and rejig it to make 'their' unambiguous.