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I'm writing an article for a scientific magazine, and this is a particular example of a general doubt that often happens to me. When should I use "X of Y" instead of "Y X"? I hope I'm explaining it well...

Is there a general rule for that?

Thank you!

Paulo Barradas
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    It's up to the writer, with some input from typical uses seen in other articles about the topic being discussed. – Hot Licks Jul 19 '20 at 15:45
  • Does this answer your question? Attributive nouns vs. of-genitive – Edwin Ashworth Jul 19 '20 at 15:48
  • @EdwinAshworth — I’m not sure it would. Most of the examples there are of a non-scientific type, in which there is a simple (non-attributive?) form that is obviously preferable. This isn’t a site for style advice, but if it were I’d ask the reader for context. In scientific writing you frequently see the most horrendous string of nouns used adjectives in which it is unclear what is qualifying what. In such cases the answer is almost always a preposition. One size does not fit all. – David Jul 19 '20 at 19:01
  • Here, both 'soil acidification' and 'acidification of the soil' are in a formal, scientific register, so 'the of-genitive is more formal' is not a major factor. I'd certainly use 'acidification of the soil' where I was focussing on the process, being more verby, but use 'soil acidification' for the phenomenon. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 20 '20 at 10:30

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