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How many times one can use genitive to refer to an object? German sentences like:
Das Fenster des Hauses der Mutter meiner Freundin u.s.w.
are, in my opinion, strange and stylistically questionable.
I guess one could just replace the genitive term by von der/dem in some instances but I have the idea (prejudice?) that genitive is more elegant than the von construction for possessive. How many times can one use genitive, as in the previous dummy sentence, without incurring abuses?
The name of this construction is Genitivkette (in English: genitive chain). Long chains are bad style, but a simple replacement of the genitiv by a von dem-dative construction is even worse style.
How do you do it better in English? The verbatim translation of your example is this sentence:
My friend’s mother’s house’s window …
First of all let’s make a whole sentence out of this fragment:
My friend’s mother’s house’s window is broken.
This is correct English, but bad style, and it is an ugly genitive chain.
One could try this:
The window of the house of the mother of my friend is broken.
That’s also correct English, but it is ugly and bad style too.
I guess in real life, you would say it more like this:
My friend’s mother has a house, and in this house a window is broken.
In German:
Die Mutter meiner Freundin hat ein Haus, und in diesem Haus ist ein Fenster kaputt.
Addendum:
It’s quite hard to tell the maximum length of a genitive chain. There isn’t any rule that limits the count. Even chains containing 20 limbs are grammatical, but a stylistic disaster.
I think, the limitation is similar to the English limitation. I consider two limbs as unsuitable but acceptable in some cases. For instance,
Das Auto der Schwester meines Freundes ist weiß. — My friend’s sister’s car is white.
Having three or more limbs, I’d suggest to consider rephrasing the sentence. For example,
Das Auto der Schwester des Freundes meines Bruders ist weiß. — My brother’s friend’s sister’s car is white.
