guides

[Dmitry71]

Hi
Which collocation is correct? If both, then which is better?
"Administrator guide" or "Administrator's guide"

and another pair:
"User guide" or "User's guide"


Thanks in advance

[OddThomas]

Syntactically and semantically, I prefer administrator's guide as the guide for administrators.

Without the possessive, I believe the guide becomes a guide to , by, or of, instead of a guide for. For example, a field guide, a tour guide, an investment guide, and a fishing guide are not guides for (to be used by) any of the nouns named, whereas a user's guide, an administrator's guide, a tourist's guide, and an installer's guide certainly are.