[micaelo]

In the phrase "in fifty years' time" is the apostrophe strictly necessary or can it be omitted? Thank you

[mesmark]

Good question. I wouldn't use an apostrophe. I believe it's a noun phrase modifying another noun, but in that case we would tend to use the singular. This may be one of those special cases...

When I googled it, it looks like without the apostrophe is slightly more common, but I only looked through 4 pages of entries.