On the saxon genitive ... again

Question

Dear all,
this is my first post. I learned a lot reading this forum and, now, I dare to ask my own question :-) ! Since I am a physicist, I often read in scientific papers either Einstein's equations or Einstein equations. Although I realize that such kind of expressions appears in a rather limited context, I still wonder which is the correct one. My educated guess is that Einstein equations is the right one, but I would love to have a definitive answer from some experts. I hope that my question is appropriate for this forum; otherwise please accept my apologies.

Thanks a lot!

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

Welcome to EF, Cla! Grammatically both are possible in English. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with the genitive version Einstein's equations as he is the father of his equatuions and nothing in English grammar prevents us from using the genitive. However, it is also possible to use a proper noun (Einstein) before another noun in its basic form. This usage makes the proper noun adjectival and is especially common in place names:

a London night club
Waterloo Bridge
Gatwick Airport

Of course Einstein isn't a place but I see nothing wrong with the Einstein equations. In the realm of science, there is sometimes vacillation in the use of such phrases owing to the fact that English is the leading language of science and therefore scientists from about 200 countries write theses in English. Their command of the language may vary considerably, which results in errors now and then. I think in this case both are correct, though.

CB

On the saxon genitive ... again

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