More than one small-scale firm is facing problems.

We also use a singular verb after one of+ plural noun. One of their branches has made a loss.

We can put nouns together in three ways:

1 noun + noun: a shoe shop; a cowboy film

2 preposition structure:the mouth of the river

3 possessive 's structure:my boss's office; Mathew’s idea

Usually, an idea can be expressed in only one of these ways, and it is often difficult to know which is correct. The rules will help, but there are exceptions - this is a very difficult point of grammar.

· We often put one noun in front of another. The first nounis rather like an adjective,and is usually singular,even if the meaning is plural.

a horserace (a kind of race) a racehorse (a kind of horse)

a shoeshop (not a shoesshop) a Bristolman

a ten-milewalk (not a ten-miles walk, although you can write a ten miles’ walk)

Articles belonging to the first noun are dropped in this structure.

Officers in the army - armyofficers, NOT the army officers.

· We use the possessive 's structure especially when the first noun is the name of a person, group of people, organisation, countryor animal.

In other cases we generally prefer a structure with of. Compare:

my father'sname the name of the book

the firm'sstructure the structure of plastic

America's influence the influence of alcohol

the dog'sleg the leg of the table

We also use the possessive 's structure with common 'time when'expressions, and in expressions of measurement of time.

today's paper tomorrow'sweather yesterday'snews

a month's holiday three miles'distance (or: three-mile distance)

· Possessivesusually replace articlesbefore nouns. We can say the car or Alec's car, but not Alec's the car or the Alec's car.

But a possessive word can have its own article: the boss's car.

Note also:that car of Alec's; a friend of Lou's (like a friend of mine).

We use the double possessive when we want to make the first noun specific, but at the same time show that it is one of several:

I heard the story from a friend of my brother’s. (= from one of my brother’s friends)

We usually use the indefinite article with this pattern. The double possessive is common with pronouns:

Ann is a friend of ours. (= we have several friends. She is one of them.)

Note:We spent the evening at Damon's.( = ... at Damon's house.)

She's at the hairdresser's.I bought it at Harrod's.

Grammar in Focus