That old gentleman's son

Hi,

hello

that old gentleman's son

sounds ambiguous

A native speaker would not see this as ambiguous.

If he meant that the son were old, he would say 'That gentleman's old son'.

son of that old gentleman?

that son of old gentleman?

that old son of gentleman?

how can we make it clear for each different meaning?

Hi,

There is no ambiguity in the phrase 'that old gentleman's son'. The word order used only makes sense when the meaning is 'the son of that old gentleman'.

The other two possible meanings would not be expressed in that way in English.

Benjy

Sorry, I just got used to chatting. And they all type in small letters. It's my first time who actually cares for caps online.

I think you are right. This example is not confusing.

I should have brought up a better example to learn what I meant to learn.

Thanks

Ok here is a better example, I think.

a quaint old shpherd's cottage

It could be interpreted differently.

cottage may be quaint and old

or

shepherd may be quaint and old

How can we make it clearer in both cases?

Thanks a lot

Hi,

If you are talking about an individual shepherd, as you appear to be, my comment is still basically the same.

If you mean 'a hut designed to house a shepherd', then the context will usually still make the meaning clear (eg the listener can see that no shepherd lives there now).

It's not wrong, just longer, to say

eg a hut that belongs to a quaint old shephe