beavers' and beaver's, 'a' or 'the'

[seguso]

Hi,

I am not mother-toungue and I would like to know which of the
following sentences is best to express the concept that, in general,
dams "morally belong" to beavers, since it is they who built them. The
alternative sentences I have thought of are:

A dam is a beaver's property

A dam is the beaver's property

Dams are beavers' property

Dams are the beavers' property

Dams are the beavers' properties

As you can see, I am not sure whether it is best to use "a" or "the"
as article to express a general statement; and whether to use singular
or plural.

So my questions are: which of the above sentences are correct in
English and which aren't? And what would you say is the best way to
express the concept?

Thanks for any help.

Maurizio

[GFH]

Beaver's -- one beaver
Beavers' -- two or more beavers

Since only pairs of beavers build dams, probably beavers' is correct.
But if someone had killed one of the two beavers, then beaver's (sad
as it might be) is correct.

GFH

[Pat Durkin]

"seguso" <maurizio...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:2232f862-804e-4609...@m20g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...

There may be some variation in meaning, but I find all of these
correct.

[John Varela]

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:06:45 UTC, seguso
<maurizio...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am not mother-toungue and I would like to know which of the
> following sentences is best to express the concept that, in general,
> dams "morally belong" to beavers, since it is they who built them. The
> alternative sentences I have thought of are:
>
> A dam is a beaver's property
>
> A dam is the beaver's property
>
> Dams are beavers' property
>
> Dams are the beavers' property
>
> Dams are the beavers' properties

The above can all be interpreted as saying that all dams are owned
by beavers. I would quibble that beavers own only the dams that
they themselves have built. Grand Coulee, for instance, is not
owned by beavers. If your context doesn't make that clear, then
consider saying:

Beavers own the dams that they have built

or even

Beavers own their dams (which is a little bit circular).

--
John Varela
Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email

[Ray O'Hara]

"John Varela" <OLDl...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:dxizd0mOwXzR-pn2-g19NwgFRsFyQ@localhost...

Beavers get very angry when you break their dams and they make a funny
buzzing sound and they slap their tails.
It's all very intimidating but sometimes it needs to be done.