Which is grammatically correct?

[Lorikeet]

It seems there are examples where both apply, "The house of the president" versus "The president's house". In this case I disagree that the choice is strictly a matter of formality. I think that the former emphasizes "house" and the latter emphasizes "president". Just my thoughts.

Interesting thought Kiwiboy. I don't get the same change in emphasis. "The house of the President" seems much more formal to me. I would normally use "The president's house" but I have no feeling of not emphasizing house in the second one. It would also depend if you decided to stress "president's" or "house" in the phrase, thereby really showing your emphasis.

[dduck]

Interesting thought Kiwiboy. I don't get the same change in emphasis. "The house of the President" seems much more formal to me. I would normally use "The president's house" but I have no feeling of not emphasizing house in the second one. It would also depend if you decided to stress "president's" or "house" in the phrase, thereby really showing your emphasis.

I agree with Kiwiboy. I feel the order of the nouns does change the meaning slightly.

Iain

[LarryLatham]

I think ANY change in word order changes the meaning. Stop and think for a moment: if there were two ways (or more) to say exactly the same thing (in any language), the result would be that we'd all become stutterers. We'd have to choose between them, perhaps by flipping a mental coin, since there'd be no other way, each time the issue came up in conversation. Instead, since two variations carry somewhat different meanings, we can choose the one closest in meaning to what we wish to express. Every nuance in language, I believe, carries meaning, however slight. That's one reason why so often, what students say or write might be technically "correct" but sound funny to us as native speakers.

Larry Latham