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I'm always confused how to write a "something of something else" in English, especially when plural is involved. For example, what would be the correct way to write the following sentences in English:

There are three phones, each phone is of a different type:

  • Three types of phones?
  • Three phone types?
  • Three types of phone?

Similarly, there are several doctors, and each doctor has a car:

  • The doctors' cars?
  • The cars of the doctors?
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1 Answer 1

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"Three types of phone" ("Three phone types" is also grammatically correct, but less usual).

"The doctors' cars" ("The cars of the doctors" is also grammatically correct, but clumsy).

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  • What about "job's descriptions" vs "jobs description"? The full sentence: "I recommend you to read ... .... to get ideas..."
    – Mosh Feu
    Commented Aug 4, 2020 at 12:42
  • If there's only one job, I would use "the job description". If there's more than one job and/or description, "the job descriptions". In these cases, "job" is used to qualify "description(s)", not as a single or plural noun in its own right. Some may prefer to hyphenate as "job-description(s)". If you want to use a phrase like the ones in the original post, "description(s) of the job(s)" would be less clumsy than "the job's (jobs') description(s)".
    – DavidR
    Commented Aug 6, 2020 at 14:39
  • Thank you! Now I can re-phrase my questions better. What about (1) many jobs, each job has only one description. (2) many jobs, each job has some requirements.
    – Mosh Feu
    Commented Aug 6, 2020 at 15:04
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    @Mosh Feu As I wrote above: "the job descriptions/requirements" ("job" in an adjectival role) or "the descriptions of/requirements for the jobs" (make it clear in the rest of your document which descriptions/requirements are relevant to which jobs).
    – DavidR
    Commented Aug 6, 2020 at 21:33

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