Correct or not no. 21 - screen brightness level set to

Question

Dear Users,Are these questions formulated correctly? I have problems with such questions, especially if there's a lot of 's involved...What is your Ipad's screen's brightness level set to?What's the brightness level in your Ipad set to?Thanks

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Perfect StrangerWhat is your Ipad's screen's brightness level set to?What's the brightness level in your Ipad set to?

The second is much better even though both are grammatical.

You can also do it without 's:

What brightness level do you have your Ipad screen set to?

CJ

Perfect Stranger · Answer

CalifJimYou can also do it without 's:

May I ask if there's any rule that I could follow here? I never know when I can skip 's and when I can't.

For example, here's another sentence taken from a discussion on mirrorless cameras:

I suppose the sensor's size doesn't bother you at all, does it?

CalifJim · Answer

Perfect StrangerI never know when I can skip 's and when I can't.

Well, if it's any consolation to you, sometimes I don't know either.

Typically, if both terms are inanimate objects, you drop the 's. car key, window pane, shoe lace.

In your camera example, I would say, the size of the sensor. size is the parameter by which the sensor is being measured. That's abstract, not an object. Personally, I tend to use 's only after a noun that represents an animate being or amount of time.

the man's watch; a day's work.

CJ

Perfect Stranger · Answer

CalifJimWell, if it's any consolation to you, sometimes I don't know either.

Haha, it is

CalifJimIn your camera example, I would say, the size of the sensor.

Hmm... would you say then that sensor's size is utterly wrong? How about sensor size?

Thanks

CalifJim · Answer

Perfect Strangerwould you say then that sensor's size is utterly wrong?

No. Not at all. That's another way of saying it.

Perfect StrangerHow about sensor size?

Also possible.
________

It matters concerning the use of 's or not, or using an of-phrase, it's often just guessing on the basis of what you've heard and read. After you have a lot of experience with English you'll have read hundreds of these constructions and you'll automatically choose those that you see and hear more often. They will just "sound right".

CJ

Perfect Stranger · Answer

CJ, forgive me for beating a dead horse here but... I still can't quite catch the difference between:

sensor's size
the size of the sensor
sensor size

CalifJim · Answer

Perfect StrangerI still can't quite catch the difference between: sensor's size the size of the sensor sensor size

It's not a matter of difference in meaning. They all mean the same thing.

It's a matter of which one is most idiomatic, that is, the one that most English speakers usually choose and are more comfortable with. There is often no right answer on these. It's a matter of speakers' personal preferences and, I suppose you could say, a matter of style. But if you take a sample of all speakers' preferences for one particular phrase, you'll find that a large percentage usually choose one of the three ways of saying it, and a small percentage choose each of the other two ways.

Many expressions are fixed. We generally say "tire pressure". Let's say 90% of people say it that way. Maybe 5% say "tire's pressure" and another 5% say "the pressure of the tire". (I don't know the real percentages. I'm just making some educated guesses.) Other examples in this category are fruit vendor, vacation home, church service, houseboat, furniture polish. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of such expressions in English, and unless the words you are combining fall into one of the categories below, you should guess that this is the correct way to express the combination. You may be wrong, but if you don't know for sure, it's a good guess.

Personal ownership or personal relationships are generally expressed with 's. John's car. Luisa's brother. The professor's children. My boss's desk. Here my guess is that 99% of people say it that way. Another 1% may say the car of John or the brother of Luisa. For these constructions, 0% say John car, Luisa brother, etc., so in this kind of expression this last form is completely unidiomatic, and native speakers will judge it ungrammatical.

A word that expresses a period of time can also take 's. a day's work. These don't come up very often, but that's the usual pattern. The percentage for the work of a day must be less than half a percent, and it's 0% for a day work.

A word that expresses a parameter by which we measure something (length, size, height, temperature, etc.) is usually followed by an of-phrase. the length of the string, the height of the tree, the temperature of the water. Let's say about 88%. But you may also hear water temperature, etc. Let's say about 11%. The remaining 1% of the time you might hear string's length, etc. People vary more in their preferences in this situation, so it's harder to guess which might be the best for any given combination.

It seems that in general, the more abstract the concept, the more likely it is that the of-phrase will be used. the population of the city, the division of spoils after the war, the agricultural practices of the French, the love of music. But here again, it's difficult to give much more of a guideline than "Listen to native speakers, and imitate them" because you might hear, on a rare occasion, the city's population or French agricultural practices, though you will never hear or see spoils' division or spoils division or music's love or music love.

Unfortunately, I can't give you any very crisply defined rule for these.

CJ

Correct or not no. 21 - screen brightness level set to

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