The use of genitive case & its equivalent of-phrase

1. with nouns denoting persons & animals(John’s idea, swalow’s nest). With other nouns-of+noun phrase

2. with nouns denoting time & distance(minute, moment, year & substantivized adverbs - today)today’s papers-сегодняшние, the papers of today-сегодняшнего дня)

3. with the names of countries & towns(Britain’s national museum, Canada’s population)

4. with the names of newspapers denoting different kinds of organizations(company’s plan, Guardian’s analysis, Geographical Society’s gold medal)

5. with the nouns world, nation, country, city, town(the nation’s health)

6. with the nouns ship, boat, car(ship’s crew)

7. with nouns denoting planets(sun, moon, earth)(this earth’s life)

8. set expressions: to one 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 throe, to move at a snail’s pace, at the water’s edge

The syntactical function of the genitive –attribute. It’s always used as a premodifier & sometimes called the depend genitive.

The absolute genitive – when the genitive case is not followed by the headword & when it stands for the whole noun phrase:

It is used:

1. to avoid repetition(our house is better than Mary’s(house))

2. after the preposition of(an old frend of my mother’s)

3. to denote shops(the grocer’s, the baker’s)

4. saints’ nameSt Paul’s(cathedral)

5. places of residence(at my uncle’s, at Timothy’s)

Double genitive

1. My mother’s father’s people

2. The boy’s half-hour’s run

3.

5. Articles with Geographic Names

The use of articles with geographical names has certain patterns, for example, the name of a river is used with the definite article, while the name of a lake is used without an article. The name of one mountain (or one island) is without an article, while the name of a mountain chain (or a group of islands) is with the definite article, and so on. The examples in the groups below are listed under the two headings: No article; Article the. It is much easier to memorize articles with geographical names in this way.

Continents and geographical areas No article:

America, North America, South America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica;

Northern Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe, Central America, Southern Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia.

Article the:

the Western Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere, the Arctic, the Antarctic, the North, the East, the Southwest, the Far East, the Middle East, the North Pole, the South Pole.

Oceans, seas, rivers, gulfs, straits, canals, currents, waterfalls, lakes

Article the:

the Atlantic Ocean / the Atlantic, the Pacific Ocean / the Pacific, the Arctic Ocean, the Indian Ocean;

the Mediterranean Sea / the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Barents Sea, the Caribbean Sea / the Caribbean, the Sea of Japan;

the Amazon / the Amazon River, the Thames / the Thames River / the River Thames, the Mississippi / the Mississippi River, the Nile / the Nile River, the Seine / the Seine River, the Danube / the Danube River, the Volga / the Volga River, the Amur / the Amur River, the Dnepr / the Dnepr River / the Dnieper, the Amu Darya;

the Gulf of Mexico, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Finland, the Bay of Bengal;

But: Hudson Bay, San Francisco Bay;

Но: Гудзонов залив, Залив Сан-Франциско;

Article the:

the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Dover, the Dardanelles, the Bering Strait, the Strait of Magellan, the English Channel, the Mozambique Channel;

the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal;

the Gulf Stream, the Florida Current;

the Victoria Falls / Victoria Falls, Niagara Falls / the Niagara Falls, the American Falls, the Canadian Falls, the Horseshoe Falls / Horseshoe Falls.

No article:

Lake Baikal / Baikal, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Crater Lake, Utah Lake, Lake Geneva, Great Pond.

But: the Great Salt Lake, the Great Lakes (5 lakes).

Но: Большое Соленое озеро, Великие озера (5 озер).

Islands

No article:

Greenland (the island of Greenland), Java (the island of Java), Cyprus, Madagascar, Ellis Island, Hokkaido, Sakhalin, Jamaica.

But: the Isle of Man.

Article the:

the British Isles, the Falkland Islands / the Falklands, the Virgin Islands, the West Indies, the Aleutian Islands / the Aleutians, the Kuril Islands / the Kurils, the Bahamas / the Bahama Islands, the Azores, the Canary Islands / the Canaries, the Philippines.

Mountains, volcanoes, hills

No article:

Everest / Mount Everest, Fuji / Mount Fuji / Fujiyama, Kilimanjaro / Mount Kilimanjaro, Elbrus / Mount Elbrus, Mont Blanc, Mount Whitney, Lassen Peak, Etna / Mount Etna, Vesuvius / Mount Vesuvius;

Capitol Hill, Telegraph Hill.

Article the:

the Himalayas / the Himalaya Mountains, the Rocky Mountains / the Rockies, the Caucasus Mountains / the Caucasus, the Ural Mountains / the Urals, the Pamirs, the Andes, the Alps, the Apennines, the Grand Canyon;

Deserts, valleys Пустыни, долины

Article the:

the Sahara / the Sahara Desert, the Kalahari / the Kalahari Desert, the Arabian Desert, the Gobi / the Gobi Desert, the Kara Kum;

the Ruhr Valley, the Nile Valley, the Central Valley, the Valley of the Kings.

But: Death Valley, Silicon Valley.

Но: Долина смерти, Кремниевая долина.

Peninsulas, capes Полуострова, мысы

Article the: Артикль the:

the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Indochinese Peninsula, the Balkan Peninsula, the Iberian Peninsula.

полуостров Камчатка, полуостров Индокитай, Балканский полуостров, Пиренейский полуостров.

But: Kamchatka, Indochina.

Но: Камчатка, Индокитай.

No article:

Cape Horn, North Cape, Cape Canaveral, Cape Chelyuskin.

мыс Горн, мыс Нордкап, мыс Канаверал, мыс Челюскин.

But: the Cape of Good Hope.

Но: мыс Доброй Надежды.

Countries, states No article:

England, Great Britain, Britain, Ireland, Holland, France, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Greece, America, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, India, Mongolia, China, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Texas, California, Mississippi.

But: the Congo.

Article the:

the United States of America (the U.S.A.) / the United States (the U.S.), the United Kingdom (the UK), the Russian Federation, the Netherlands, the Philippines;

the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Cuba, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Spain, the State of California.

Cities, towns

No article:

Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Delhi, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Warsaw, Washington, Bedford.

But: the Hague.

Но: Гаага.

No article:

New York City (NYC), Mexico City, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Cape Town, Fort Knox.

Нью-Йорк Сити, Мехико, Оклахома-Сити, Канзас-Сити, Кейптаун, Форт-Нокс.

Article the:

the City of Athens, the City of Moscow, the City of New York, the City of Oslo, the City of Rome, the City of Tokyo, the Town of Bedford.

Streets, avenues, highways

No article:

Main Street, Wall Street, 42nd St., Oak Alley, Maple Boulevard, Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Broadway, Lexington Road, Route 66, Highway 64.

But: the Arbat, the Mall.

Но: Арбат, Молл.

Article the:

the Avenue of the Americas, the Silk Road, the National Road, the Freedom Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Trans-Canada Highway, the Pan American Highway, the Lincoln Highway, the FDR Drive.

7. The adjective is a part of speech which modifies the noun. Adjec­tives can express qualities (large, modem, quiet), physical and emo­tional states (cold, busy, friendly, happy), origin (American, Asian), opinions (excellent, fantastic, cool), frequency (weekly, daily, regular). According to their morphological composition adjectives can be simple (young, new, fresh), derived (careful, woody, rainy), com­pound (well-known, much-praised, man-made). All adjectives fall into two groups — qualitative and relative. Qualitative adjectives denote properties of a substance directly (great, calm, gold, beautiful). Relative adjectives describe proper­ties of a substance through relation to material (woolen, wooden, golden) to place (Italian, European), to time (ancient, contemporary). When two or more adjectives come before a noun, the usual or­der is: Value — Size — Age — Shape — Colour — Origin — Material — Opinion — Temperature: a pretty little wooden house (value + size + material) a beautiful old red London bus (value + age + colour + origin) This word order is not compulsory. Sometimes a short adjective comes before a long one: a soft, comfortable chair; a happy, peaceful home; a tall, handsome man; a bright, cheerful smile. The adjective big generally comes before value adjectives: a big bad wolf, a big tall building, a big handsome man, a big fat woman. Adjectives are used in the sentence in the functions of an at­tribute or of a predicative: He always drinks cold milk. He is cold and miserable. Adjectives denoting temporary states are used only predicatively: ill, well, unwell; as well as adjectives with the prefix -a: afraid, alike, alive, alone, asleep, awake, aware (of), ashamed. She doesn't look very well today. Adjectives have degrees of comparison: the comparative and the superlative degree. The adjective expressing some quality without comparison is said to be in the positive degree. An equal degree is expressed with the help of the conjunctions; as ... as, not as (so) ... as in negative sentences. She is as old as I am. The comparative and the superlative degrees of comparison are formed in the synthetic, analytic and suppletive ways. The synthetic degrees of comparison are formed by adding the inflexion -er, -est (fine — finer — finest) to the adjectives having one or two syllables. The more recent trend is: happy— more happy — most happy. The analytic degrees are formed by means of «more» and «most» (difficult — more difficult — most difficult). Several adjectives form their degrees of comparison irregularly, in the suppletive way when some other words are used to build up the forms. good — better — best, bad — worse — worst, little — less — least, many/much — more — most. The following adjectives have double degrees of comparison: far: farther — farthest (with reference to distance), further — furthest (with reference to distance, as well as in figurative use «the next to come»).