Hello! I've been having this doubt for years and hope someone could enlighten me once and for all.
In the Movie Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget is starting to write in his notebook "Diary of Bridget Jones", to then strikethrough and rewrite "Bridget Jones's Diary". What is the difference? Is it that significant?
Thanks in advance.
Posted Nov 23, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC
"Diary of Bridget Jones" sounds like a title of a book/film, while "Bridget Jones's diary" is just what you would call it in an actual conversation. I haven't seen the movie, but I guess she felt the first choice sounded too dramatic.
Thanks. I thought the issue resided in the meaning, I didn't contemplate sentences could get the same treatment as words, where the French/Norman/Latin are used more formally whereas Saxon/Germanic ones are more casual (spirit vs. ghost, carpentry vs. woodwork, etc).
People have debated it before.
I have never seen the film or read the book.
My take is that they are the same except one difference.
Using a 's after a word that ends in s makes me very nervous. I always second guess my self and even if I read online the right way to do it, I still think I am wrong.
My best guess was the character was unsure of themselves and then had a change of heart. So to me it would be a character thing and not a language thing.
But then most people would write "my diary" rather than refer to themselves in the 3rd person.
The two mean exactly the same thing, the difference is just down to how they sound. "Bridget Jones's diary" is what you'd usually say, it sounds quite casual and natural. "The diary of Bridget Jones" sounds a bit more unusual and maybe a bit more formal. It's something you might name a diary but you'd never hear people actually speaking like that.
For instance I'd never say to someone in conversation "have you seen the diary of Bridget?" but I would say "have you Bridget's diary?"