9. Possessive Preceded by Of

9. Possessive Preceded by Of
When a phrase describing a relationship includes the preposition of, as in “a neighbor of Dad’s” or “that statement of Smith’s,” note that the presence of the preposition does not preclude the need for the genitive apostrophe. (A construction omitting the apostrophe doesn’t necessarily look wrong, but consider the example “the book of John”; this phrase suggests a book about John, not one belong to or written by John.)

However, consider simplifying the phrase to, for example, “Dad’s neighbor” or “Smith’s statement” when doing so does not change the meaning. (“A neighbor of Dad’s,” for example, implies one of two or more neighbors more strongly than “Dad’s neighbor” does, and “that statement of Smith’s,” for example, more clearly specifies a particular statement than “Smith’s statement” does.)