siren of an ambulance

Number 2 is particularly redundant but I'd accept it.

It'd be much better like this though:

Soon the heard the arriving ambulance's siren wailing.

That way it looses a lot of the redundancy.

I think 'ambulance's siren' doesn't sound good. Is there another way of expressing it?

Many thanks.

Using the possessive with ambulance is okay, T.

Here are some other ways to put it though I must tell you, to my mind, they still are a little strange. A siren is heard long before an ambulance arrives so though the grammar is fine, it does sound a wee bit odd. Why not cut 'arriving'?

1. Soon they heard the siren of an arriving ambulance [arriving].

2. Soon they heard the wail/wails/wailing of the siren of an arriving ambulance [arriving].

3. Soon they heard the wail/wails/wailing of an arriving ambulance [arriving].

Or you could just say "ambulance siren".

I prefer "they heard an ambulance siren in the distance" - not possessive. Or they heard the wailing siren of an approaching ambulance. Or they heard the wailing siren of the ambulance arriving at the scene

Hi JTT

Im my country, when the traffic is blocking its way, the driver of the ambulance will use the siren to tell the drivers of the other vehicles to give way. It is not uncommon to hear the wail of the amubulance even when it is quite near the scene of the accident.