user guide vs. user's guide

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi, is there a difference between “a user’s guide to the program” and “a user guide to the program”?

Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A Snow scene[YSaerTTEW443543]

2

There’s no difference, and neither one is wrong.

3

I agree.

Interesting though:

1,960,000 English pages for “user’s guide”
662,000 English pages for “user guide”

“User guide” sounds more formal to me. Sounds more “professional”, technical.

4

Why not “users’ guide”? :slight_smile:

5

“User guide” sounds clumsier to me, and less formal. When I see a user’s guide, I expect it to be well-written. When I see a user guide, I expect to see typos and clunky syntax.

6

Because generally only one user has the guide in his hand at one time.

However, there would be nothing grammatically wrong about users’ guide, and I don’t doubt that it’s used in some situations.

7

This is a crystalclear explanation to me.