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Possessives or compound nouns?
We can demonstrate the link between two nouns either by using possessive forms (the US bank's finance division / the finance division of the US bank) or compound nouns (the US bank finance division). Sometimes all three are possible, as here. Sometimes one form is more likely than another.
Possessive forms: 's or of ?
We normally use the genitive or possessive 's structure when we are referring to ownership and possession, people and animals, personal and professional relationships, or the origin of something in a country or organisation:
Mark's uncle has just bought a Porsche Boxter.
Mark's Uncle Frank is Sheila's oldest brother.
Pig's liver is full of iron and vitamins.
He has strange tastes: he prefers goat's milk to cow's milk.
Stan's new secretary is not even computer literate.
The company's difficulties should not be underestimated.
Scotland's natural beauty is on a par with Finland's.
The policy of the company / the company's policy is to recruit staff from all EU countries.
Poland's history / the history of Poland illustrates the art of survival against the odds.
New Year's Day falls on a Saturday in 2005.
Last Saturday's match was fully reported in last Sunday's News of the World.
There was twenty minutes' delay before the plane could take off.
Disneyland was seven hours' drive from where we were staying.
Our son so much wanted to go to Disneyland that we had to resign ourselves to a seven-hour journey.
A ten-minute delay was acceptable, but a three-hour delay wasn't.
Note that when we refer to a specific date, the of structure is used:
Holidaymakers suffering from that stomach bug on board the cruise ship, the Aurorra - this was reported in The Sunday Times of 25 November 2003.
Over one hundred Renaissance paintings were destroyed in the earthquake of 1926.
Note the frequency of compound nouns in the previous two examples - holidaymakers, stomach bug, cruise ship, Sunday Times, Renaissance paintings, earthquake. When we use compound nouns like these, the first noun has the same function as a classifying adjective - it tells or describes the nature of the second noun:
This shoe shop sells sports shoes.
Communication skills teachers sometimes teach computer studies.
Premiership footballers on a winter break in Spain may face gang-rape allegation charges.
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