[Grammar] Possession with 's and without 's

[itecompro]

Hi there,
One simple question:

How come we say "Alice's book" but "car door". Why don't we say "car's door"?

Thanks in advance.

 

[bhaisahab]

Hi there,
One simple question:

How come we say "Alice's book" but "car door". Why don't we say "car's door"?

Thanks in advance.

If you put "car's door" into a sentence, I'll comment on it.

 

[itecompro]

I can't give an example because I don't know the rule and I don't remember whether I've seen "car's door" or not.
The problem is that I don't know when we should use " 's " and when not. Could you please explain it with your own examples?

 

[emsr2d2]

The best way I can explain it is simply to say that the door doesn't literally "belong" to the car. A car is an inanimate object. It cannot own or possess anything, so nothing can belong to it.

Alice's book is a book which literally belongs to Alice.
The car door is simply a door which happens to be attached to a car. It is the door of a car, not a door which belongs to a car.

 

[Chicken Sandwich]

Hi there,
One simple question:

How come we say "Alice's book" but "car door". Why don't we say "car's door"?

Thanks in advance.

NOT A TEACHER

I have found a thread that you may appreciate. According to the participants in this thread, both "car's door" and "car door" are possible, depending on the context.

 

[itecompro]

What about this context?

[START]
Compressed in the zip file, you’ll see the original course syllabuses which are downloaded from the universities’ official websites. Reference books are mentioned in each university’s “.pdf” file.
[END]

Could you please correct my mistakes and explain why you have done so?

 

[bhaisahab]

What about this context?

[START]
Compressed in the zip file, you’ll see the original course syllabuses which are downloaded from the universities’ official websites. Reference books are mentioned in each university’s “.pdf” file.
[END]

Could you please correct my mistakes and explain why you have done so?

It seems OK to me.

 

[Tdol]

I would just say pdf file- without the dot or the inverted commas.