Part-Whole Relation
What is it part of?
Signification
A relation where one thing is a part, member, ingredient, section, surface, feature, or component of another.
Comment le repérer
Ask whether one entity belongs structurally inside another.
Exemples
roof|hand|page|piece|member
the roof of the house|a piece of cake|part of the team
The roof of the house is red.
Visual guide
WHOLE └─ PART / member house └─ roof team └─ member Ask: part of what?
Same relation, different forms: English: roof of the house Genitive: house-GEN roof Compound: house-roof Partitive: piece of cake Not just ownership.
Vue par langue
Dans votre langue maternelle
Part-whole relations are commonly encoded with de, compounds, and partitive-style expressions.
Le toit de la maison est rouge.
The roof of the house is red.
Dans votre langue d’apprentissage
En anglais, les relations partie-tout se disent avec des expressions en of, le possessif ’s ou des noms composés.
The roof of the house is old.
of the house = relation partie-tout : le toit fait partie de la maison
Les apprenants peuvent trop utiliser le possessif ’s ou traduire mot à mot là où l’anglais préfère of ou un nom composé.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.