Belonging to someone | typerrorsinenglish

Word Order: Belonging to someone or something

Word order is quite important in English, particularly when something belongs to someone. Most of the examples given below are grammatically correct but the word order suggests the situations are far more important and formal than they should be and will make you sound like a pompous idiot (although some of them are important sounding and so don't really need to be changed, but, hey, this is an exercise). So can you rearrange these sentences - that is, change the order slightly - so they sound more natural in spoken English?

Example:

The birthday of my wife. This should be: My wife's birthday.

A PDF version of this exercise is available to download here.

1 The husband of Sue. _______________________________________________
2 The motorbike of Ania. _______________________________________________
3 Where is the country palace of the King? _______________________________________________
4 What time is the wedding of Brian and Gillian? _______________________________________________
5 The rich fruit cakes of Masterchef Julie Thomas. _______________________________________________
6 Where are the geography books of the students? _______________________________________________
7 The garden of my elderly grandmother. _______________________________________________
8 What is the name of your dog? _______________________________________________
9 That is the son of Richard. _______________________________________________
10 When are you going to prepare the dinner of the guests? _______________________________________________
11 Who is the friend of Peter going to the cinema with? _______________________________________________
12 That’s the Spiderman poster of Mike's. _______________________________________________
13 This is the double-decker bus of the company. _______________________________________________
14 Every day the friend of Peter gets into trouble at school. _______________________________________________
15 How clean is the air of London? _______________________________________________
16 The small brown wooden table of Felix's. _______________________________________________
17 One of those books is a book of Peter's. _______________________________________________
18 The exhibition includes a demonstration of the new smartphone of Samsung. _______________________________________________
19 Our party is being held at the home of Benjamin Walright. _______________________________________________
20 Three well-thought-out ideas of Eleanor's. _______________________________________________
21 Do you have enough money of your father to pay for the insurance? _______________________________________________
22 The tea and coffee-making facilities of the hotel are excellent. _______________________________________________
23 We haven’t installed the program of Adele's properly. _______________________________________________
24 The great plan of Gosia's will help organise the finances of Gerard. _______________________________________________
25 We look forward to hearing about the great adventures of Herbert. _______________________________________________
26 The automated car wash has scratched the incredibly clean car of Alan's. _______________________________________________
27 The preparations of the birthday party by Kevin for Juliet are going well. _______________________________________________
28 The vacuum cleaner that belongs to Laura hasn’t been fixed by the brother of Simon. _______________________________________________
29 The sausage, egg and chips for Ronda has been ruined by the clumsiness of Brian. _______________________________________________
30 Several of the employees are disappointed with the pay rise offer of the management. _______________________________________________
31 The brand new flatscreen TV of Sony has been improved by the own technology of the company. _______________________________________________
32 The cleaning tools of the staff have been left in the room of Gordon and Barney on the fifth floor of the hotel. _______________________________________________

And now scroll down for the answers...

1 The husband of Sue. Sue’s husband.
2 The motorbike of Ania. Ania’s motorbike.
3 Where is the country palace of the King? Where is the King’s country palace?
4 What time is the wedding of Brian and Gillian? What time is Brian and Gillian’s wedding?
5 The rich fruit cakes of Masterchef Julie Thomas. Masterchef Julie Thomas’s rich fruit cakes.
6 Where are the geography books of the students? Where are the students’ geography books?
7 The garden of my elderly grandmother. My elderly grandmother’s garden.
8 What is the name of your dog? What’s your dog’s name?
9 That is the son of Richard. That’s Richard’s son.
10 When are you going to prepare the dinner of the guests? When are you going to prepare the guests’ dinner?
11 Who is the friend of Peter going to the cinema with? Who is Peter’s friend going to the cinema with?
12 That’s the Spiderman poster of Mike's. That’s Mike’s Spiderman poster.
13 This is the double-decker bus of the company. This is the company’s double-decker bus.
14 Every day the friend of Peter gets into trouble at school. Every day Peter’s friend gets into trouble at school.
15 How clean is the air of London? How clean is London’s air?
16 The small brown wooden table of Felix's. Felix’s small brown wooden table.
17 One of those books is a book of Peter's. One of those books is Peter’s/One of those is Peter’s book.
18 The exhibition includes a demonstration of the new smartphone of Samsung. The exhibition includes a demonstration of Samsung’s new smartphone.
19 Our party is being held at the home of Benjamin Walright. Our party is being held at Benjamin Walright’s home.
20 Three well-thought-out ideas of Eleanor's. Eleanor’s three well-thought-out ideas.
21 Do you have enough money of your father to pay for the insurance? Do you have enough of your father’s money to pay for the insurance?
22 The tea and coffee-making facilities of the hotel are excellent. The hotel’s tea and coffee-making facilities are excellent.
23 We haven’t installed the program of Adele's properly. We haven’t installed Adele’s program properly.
24 The great plan of Gosia's will help organise the finances of Gerard. Gosia’s great plan will help Gerard’s finances.
25 We look forward to hearing about the great adventures of Herbert. We look forward to hearing about Herbert’s great adventure.
26 The automated car wash has scratched the incredibly clean car of Alan's. The automated car wash has scratched Alan’s incredibly clean car.
27 The preparations of the birthday party by Kevin for Juliet are going well. Kevin’s preparations for Juliet’s birthday party are going well.
28 The vacuum cleaner that belongs to Laura hasn’t been fixed by the brother of Simon. Laura’s vacuum cleaner hasn’t been fixed by Simon’s brother.
29 The sausage, egg and chips for Ronda has been ruined by the clumsiness of Brian. Brian’s clumsiness has burnt Ronda’s sausage, egg and chips.
30 Several of the employees are disappointed with the pay rise offer of the management. Several of the company’s employees are disappointed with the management’s pay rise offer.
31 The brand new flatscreen TV of Sony has been improved by the own technology of the company. Sony’s brand-new flatscreen TV has been improved by the corporation’s own technology.
32 The cleaning tools of the staff have been left in the room of Gordon and Barney on the fifth floor of the hotel. The staff’s cleaning tools have been left in Gordon and Barney’s room on the hotel’s fifth floor.

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