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I wonder which expression is correct in my examples. I know the better way to say them is "Tom's bike" and "Tom's home", but I am still curious about the form in the examples as it is quite common in cases where the name are just too long to use apostrophe.

Example 1:

(1) I am going to ride the bike of Tom.

(2) I am going to ride the bike of Tom's.

Example 2:

(3) I am going to the home of Tom.

(4) I am going to the home of Tom's.

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In this poor man's humble opinion,

In Example 1: '(1) I am going to ride the bike of Tom.' is better as you are already indicating possessiveness through the use of 'of'.

Similarly,

In Example 2: '(3) I am going to the home of Tom.' is better as you are already indicating possessiveness through the use of 'of'.

Hope this helped.

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    That is correct. We would never say 'the bike of Tom's'. 'I am going to ride a bike of Tom's' would suggest that Tom owns several bikes and is lending one to you.
    – Kate Bunting
    Apr 22, 2020 at 11:54
  • Thank you for the answers. Your replies have helped me make gains in grammar.
    – vincentlin
    Apr 22, 2020 at 13:19
  • This is an old answer now but I think it's worth registering my disagreement with it. The bike of Tom and the home of Tom are not idiomatic English - we would say Tom's bike or Tom's home (or more usually Tom's house). However we might say of Tom's in an expression such as That new bike of Tom's looks expensive!.
    – nekomatic
    May 9 at 10:49

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