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work), his sly idiot’s smile - идиотская улыбка, you’ve got angel’s eyes -ангельские глазки, this is a women’s
college - женский колледж.
The use of the genitive case and its equivalent of-phrase
§ 183. The genitive case is used:
1. With nouns denoting persons and animals.
John’s idea, the swallow’s nest, the mare’s back.
With other nouns (denoting inanimate objects or abstract notions) the of + noun phrase is used: the back of a
train, the legs of a table.
2. With nouns denoting time and distance, such as minute, moment, hour, day, week, month, year, inch,
foot, mile and substantivized adverbs: today, yesterday, tomorrow, etc.
a moment’s delay
an hour’s drive
today’s newspaper
a week’s time
a night’s rest
a month’s absence
a mile’s distance
a few minutes’ silence
yesterday’s telephone conversation
With these nouns the of-phrase is either impossible, as in the first three examples, or if it is possible the two
variants are not interchangeable.
today’s papers - сегодняшние газеты
the papers of today - газеты сегодняшнего дня
3. With the names of countries and towns.
Britain’s national museums
Canada’s population
London’s ambulance services
4. With the names of newspapers and nouns denoting different kinds of organizations.
The Guardian’s analysis, the Tribune’s role, the company’s plans, the firm’s endeavours, the Coal Board’s
Offer, the government’s policy, the organisation’s executive board, the Geographical Society’s gold medal.
5. Often with the nouns world, nation, country, city, town:
the world’s top guitarists, the nation’s wealth.
6. With the nouns ship, boat, car:
the ship’s crew, the car’s wheel.
7. With nouns denoting planets: sun, moon, earth:
the sun’s rays, this earth’s life.
8. With some inanimate nouns in the following set expressions:
to one’s heart’s content (desire), at death’s door, at arm’s length, out of harm’s way, a hair’s breadth, a
needle’s eye, at a stone’s throw, to move at a snail’s pace, at the water’s edge.
§ 184. The syntactical function of the genitive case is that of an attribute. It is always used as a premodifier
of a noun and is sometimes called the dependent genitive.