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"The underlying notions of the problem" or "The problem underlying notions"? Please consider the brevity principle too.

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Second phrase is not syntactically correct – mplungjan Jan 15 at 7:31
This is a better fit for our sister site for English language learners, which is about to get created. Feel free to commit and post. Thank you. – RegDwighт♦ Jan 15 at 10:32

closed as off topic by J.R., Mehper C. Palavuzlar, RegDwighт♦ Jan 15 at 10:30

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2 Answers

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  • "The underlying notions of the problem" is grammatically correct and natural native-speaker English.
  • "The problem underlying notions" is grammatically incorrect; it has to be "The problem's underlying notions".

However, choosing notions is probably less than optimal. Without a larger context, it's not easy to see why you chose that word instead of, e.g., assumptions, axioms, biases, hypotheses, ideas, or postulates.

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'The roots of the problem' may be more appropriate. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 15 at 7:58
@Edwin: Good suggestion. – Bill Franke Jan 15 at 8:02
Worse, "the problem underlying notions of..." could be a meaningful part of a sentence, but has a completely different meaning. – Jon Hanna Jan 15 at 10:29
You probably could say, "The problem-underlying notions included X, Y, and Z", but I doubt anyone would. (It reads unnaturally, and to speak it you have to run "problem" and "underlying" together awkwardly, then pause after them, to make it clear what you mean.) – David Schwartz Jan 15 at 10:31
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In the second case, you have the risk of implying "The problem underlying the notions", which obviously you do not mean. Anyway it is ungrammatical.

As for the first option "The underlying notions of the problem", it is grammatical and conveys the meaning correctly. However, a better phrasing might be:

The notions underlying the problem

which is much more direct and places the words in their natural order.

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