seeking assistance on comprehending the sentence as below

leaves559

Hello everyone,         who could give me proposal to comprehend the sentence without adding 's' to the end of the word 'ticket' and 'card'? And even at the end of this paragraph with 's' seperately clings to the end of those two words. I am just waiting for your help  to coach me easily. Thank you in advance.
         

Odin

The Words tickets and Id cards should not have an 's' attached.   the 's' shows plural and in this instance were there is only one of each item '    example:
    Passengers can then take their ticket and ID card back.

hope this is helpfull

Odin

The words ( Tickets and ID cards ) at the end of the paragraph do not require an 's' . The items are not plural but singular in nature.  To pluralize the last sentence then you could write :

passengers can then take their items back from the checking machine

in this case Items is indicating more then one item. Hope this helps

leaves559

Odin Post time: 2016-12-29 00:17
The Words tickets and Id cards should not have an 's' attached.   the 's' shows plural and in this i ...

Thank you very much,Odin
but now I have another question for those two words have an 's' attached, whether can I write as below:
Passengers can then take their tickets and ID cards back.
Is it right?or can I  comprhend that it indecates all of them?
I am waiting for your reply. many thanks .Odin

Odin

leaves559,
Excellent question. the sentence "Passengers can then take their tickets and ID cards back." would indicate that there's more then one ticket and ID card per passenger. If you wish to show that each passenger has only one of each item then the "s" is not required. The only noun that is plural (more then one) is passengers.    Passengers can then take their ticket and ID card back.
Hope we have clarified your question.

leaves559

Odin Post time: 2016-12-30 22:17
leaves559,
Excellent question. the sentence "assengers can then take their tickets and ID cards bac ...

Thanks Odin,
           you have clarified to me clearly. I have known how to use it next time. many thanks.

Gayle

In all honesty, English can be very inconsistent when it comes to singular and plural, or rather, I should say, can go by what would be understood rather than by what is perfectly correct.  The first sentence is a good example.  Since the subject is "passengers," plural, their tickets and ID cards should also be plural.  But if it were written as "passengers need to insert their tickets," a lot of passengers might interpret that as meaning they are supposed to have more than one ticket.  Therefore, sacrificing correctness for clarity and practicality, the sign puts "ticket" and "ID card" in the singular.  The second time, it is already clear from the first instance that what is meant is that each passenger has one of each, therefore it is now put correctly in the plural.

The first usage is very common and very few native speakers would even spot it as being incorrect.  Sometimes it takes a foreign learner to spot a mistake that has become so common.  You have sharp eyes and this will surely not be the last time you find incorrectness like this committed by native English speakers.  But please keep in mind that English speakers often sacrifice perfect correctness for clarity, and please forgive us.