Possessive

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sgiovanni

#69991 Tue, 25 Jan 05 07:55 PM

What is the first name of the teacher?
What is the teacher's first name?

Are both questions correct and which one is used more often? My friend said to use of only when it is a town and not a person.

example:

The name of the town is Burrow.

sgiovanni

Joined on Sun, Jan 23 2005

New Member (13)

Mister Micawber

#70029 Wed, 26 Jan 05 12:30 AM

Either is fine, but the second is more common. Often, the possessive of nonhuman objects is preferred/recommended/required in the 'of' form:

'The door of the room was left ajar.'
'The boy's door was left ajar.'

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,610)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Possessives