My car's engine

As far as I know, when it comes to inanimate objects you should rather use the construction presented in the 3rd example, that is "the... of..." -> the engine of my car.
As for people, and animate beings you should rather use the saxon genetive form i.e. like in the 1st example...

However, I guess that in todays' english, there're so many exceptions to the above rules that you can

KooyeenHi,
could somebody comment on the following examples? You know, which are ok, which might be more common, etc.

1) My car's engine is not very powerful.
2) My car engine is not very powerful. This just doesn't sound natural.
3) The engine of my car is not very powerful.

I don't know why, but I don't l

Some would object to number 1, but I don't.

That's how I would say it!

Thanks! I understand perfectly

I also find #1 the most natural, with #3 as my second choice. (I never even heard the rule abou the Saxon genitive being used only for animate nouns until I started reading this forum -- it's really not something most native speakers think about.)

Likewise Khoff. Seems to be a rule that non-natives made up to make things harder for themselves!

Hi,

In everyday speech, I think you're likely to hear simply 'My car's not very powerful'. It's obvious that we are talking about the engine, (not eg the right rear door.

CliveHi,

In everyday speech, I think you're likely to hear simply 'My car's not very powerful'. It's obvious that we are talking about the engine, (not eg the right rear door.

Hi,
thanks again folks, for all your extra comments.
Yeah, Clive, we should always try to avoid redundant stuff. But my examples can sometimes be weird because I make them weird on purpose, lol. For example, in this case I really needed and wanted to point out that the engine was part of the car... just to understand. So don't be afraid if sometimes my examples are strange... but any cor