2021-06-10 00:10:35
#Tip 95.
In
compound nouns the last part takes the possessive sign. So also when a phrase is used as a noun.
-
My father-in-law’s home is in Easton.
- We had
a quarter of an hour’s talk.
Other examples are the following:—
My brother-in-law’s opinion; the commander-in-chief’s orders; the lady-in waiting’s duties; the coal dealer’s prices; Edward VII’s reign; the King of England’s portrait; half a year’s delay; in three or four months’ time; a cable and a half’s length; the pleasure of Major Pendennis and Mr. Arthur Pendennis’s company (Thackeray).
NOTE. Noun-phrases often contain two substantives, the second of which is in apposition with the first. In such phrases,
of is generally preferable to the possessive. Thus, we may say either “Tom the blacksmith’s daughter” or “the daughter of Tom the blacksmith”; but “the son of Mr. Hill the carpenter” is both neater and clearer than “Mr. Hill the carpenter’s son.” The use of
’s is also avoided with a very long phrase like “the owner of the house on the other side of the street.”
An objective may stand in apposition with a possessive, the latter being equivalent to
of with an object. Thus,—“I am not yet of Percy’s mind [= of the mind of Percy], the
Hotspur of the North” (Shakspere).
https://t.me/Advanced_English_Grammar
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