17:39 Apr 10, 2013
@ D.Harvatis, Many times you kindly correct my Greek and I am very thankful to you. Here, however, we have an English term and would like to clarify its intended use. If a Surgeon is talking specifically to the parents of a child, just operated on by him, then he would address the parents with the singular form, 'their child's.....', which is right. However, since we don't know, going by the 'Plurals' used, (γονείς is plural, anyway) i.e. 'children' I personally surmised that it is not referring to one particular child, as you maintain, but used as a general rule for 'parents' and their 'children' NOT all in one go but many times happening, as a general rule. Think of this as a 'Notice' on the wall in the Nurses' rest room, for example, and you will see the point. Sounds, to me, as a General Policy of informing Parents when their children are safely back in a ward. That is THE correct English way of saying it, IF of course that is the case. Only the Asker can clarify it. |