Saxon genitive. Can I use it for objects?

Question

I am translating from italian, and a question suddenly struck me:

Can I say:

The items’ content in the Navigation Drawer.

or

This is a class handling the cards’ layout.

Yes, you can; examples are even given in the tag wiki. You may be interested in our sister site for English Language Learners. — choster, Jul 23 '15 at 16:41
@choster Actually the tag wiki doesn't have examples of an inanimate "possessor", which is what this question is about. Perhaps it should include one. — Andrew Leach, Jul 23 '15 at 17:44
@AndrewLeach Fair enough; I must have skimmed it too quickly. I have expanded it, for what it's worth. — choster, Jul 23 '15 at 18:51

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 23 '15 at 19:18

1

We often use the nouns attributively there: "... item content in the Navigation Drawer" and "... a class handing card layout".

answered Jul 23 '15 at 19:18

TimR

1

While card layout is fine, my default interpretation of item content and item's content would be completely different things. "the item content in the Navigation Drawer": the things that are in the navigation drawer and are called items; "the item's content in the Navigation Drawer": the content associated with a particular item. – Peter Shor Jul 23 '15 at 19:24
1

The OP's examples are plural possessives. – TimR Jul 23 '15 at 19:50

1 Answers1