Structure of OF

Question

1 He didn't bypass the long hours of hard work;
2 He didn't bypass the hard work of long hours.
I wondered they mean the same: he didn't bypass the long hours hard work.
But in the coming group , the structures are not the same :
1 He is a member of club of boxing.
2 He is a member of boxing of club.
The second one in this group is not acceptable, so how to explain this gramatically?

GPY · Accepted Answer

yzh19781 He didn't bypass the long hours of hard work; 2 He didn't bypass the hard work of long hours.

"long hours of hard work" is the normal way to say this. "hard work of long hours" is unusual at best, and may appear incorrect or of unclear meaning.

yzh1978he didn't bypass the long hours hard work

This doesn't work properly.

yzh19781 He is a member of club of boxing.2 He is a member of boxing of club.

These are both incorrect. You would say "He is a member of a/the boxing club".

Yzh1978 · Answer

Thank you ! So, I can infer : efforts of years is incorrect ; years of efforts is correct ? Are there any rules behind it ?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

yzh1978 So, I can infer : efforts of years is incorrect ; years of efforts is correct ?

Yes.

Yzh1978 · Answer

Thank you , is there any grammar rule related to it?

GPY · Answer

yzh1978Thank you , is there any grammar rule related to it?

Probably it is easiest to learn that "amount of ~" is a pattern, where amount is any kind of quantity, e.g.:

hours of fun
days of rain
miles of traffic jams
tons of rubbish
etc.

Structure of OF

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