call on or come by???? Don't objec to???

[ostap77]

1)"Do you mind his calling on us?"

OR

2)"Do you mind his coming by our place?"

OR

3)"I don't object to his calling on us?"

OR

4)"I wouldn't say no to him/his coming by?"

Are 2),3) and 4) correct?

 

[apex2000]

Do you mind him calling on us?
Do you mind him coming by our place?
I don't object to him calling on us.
I wouldn't say no to him coming by.
All these can be used. Be careful with him/his; his is the possessive pronoun.

 

[ostap77]

Do you mind him calling on us?
Do you mind him coming by our place?
I don't object to him calling on us.
I wouldn't say no to him coming by.
All these can be used. Be careful with him/his; his is the possessive pronoun.

Do we insist on him coming early or his coming early?

 

[engee30]

Do you mind him calling on us?
Do you mind him coming by our place?
I don't object to him calling on us.
I wouldn't say no to him coming by.
All these can be used. Be careful with him/his; his is the possessive pronoun.

♥♦♣♠ NOT A TEACHER ♥♦♣♠
There's nothing wrong with mind one's doing something - that's simply a form used formally.

 

[apex2000]

Again, him.
His book, his car, his phone; you would not use him in those circumstances and take note of my previous comment.

 

[apex2000]

♥♦♣♠ NOT A TEACHER ♥♦♣♠
There's nothing wrong with mind one's doing something - that's simply a form used formally.

Your meaning there would be - mind doing something of one - which is not acceptable.

 

[engee30]

Your meaning there would be - mind doing something of one - which is not acceptable.

I haven't a clue how you came up with that. :shock:

 

[ostap77]

I haven't a clue how you came up with that. :shock:

Here's what I've found

"He insisted on my returning soon" and "There was no hope of our getting the tickets." So it should have been "He insisted on me returning soon" and "There was no hope of us getting the tickets" correspondingly?

 

[engee30]

Here's what I've found

"He insisted on my returning soon" and "There was no hope of our getting the tickets." So it should have been "He insisted on me returning soon" and "There was no hope of us getting the tickets" correspondingly?

In everyday use, the sentences with an object pronoun seem to be more common. Mind you, the possessive pronoun is also correct, often used in formal contexts.

 

[ostap77]

Do you mind him calling on us?
Do you mind him coming by our place?
I don't object to him calling on us.
I wouldn't say no to him coming by.
All these can be used. Be careful with him/his; his is the possessive pronoun.

Actually both are possible!

"You don't mind my calling you Tony, do you?"

"We discussed Alan's leaving all of his momey to charity."

"I won't risk their being arrested."

However, many speakers of American English regularly use nonpossessive forms of nouns and object pronouns instead of possessive forms. Thus you will also here

"You don't mind me calling you Tony, do you?"

"We discussed Alan leaving all of his momey to charity."

"I won't risk them being arrested."

p. 504 Ron Cowan "The teacher's grammar of English" 2008

 

[Barb_D]

The "more correct" form is indeed "his" because the word "coming/calling" is a gerund, playing the role of a noun. Yes you certainly will hear "him" often, perhaps more often than "his," but "his" is entirely correct and to tell you that it is wrong to use it is an error.

 

[apex2000]

I haven't a clue how you came up with that. :shock:

My apology for this delay; I have not been available for the last day or so.
The difficulty I referred to was your use of the apostrophe.
We use yours, ours and other possessives without an apostrophe -
Is this book yours?
Ones only hope is that the end comes soon.

 

[apex2000]

The "more correct" form is indeed "his" because the word "coming/calling" is a gerund, playing the role of a noun. Yes you certainly will hear "him" often, perhaps more often than "his," but "his" is entirely correct and to tell you that it is wrong to use it is an error.

Am I missing something here? Who has said what is wrong?

 

[engee30]

Am I missing something here? Who has said what is wrong?

Fair point, apex2000. But the way you replied to the asker's question left me, at least me, with the feeling that you don't approve of the use of the possessive there:

1)"Do you mind his calling on us?"
OR
2)"Do you mind his coming by our place?"
OR
3)"I don't object to his calling on us?"
OR
4)"I wouldn't say no to him/his coming by?"
Are 2),3) and 4) correct?

Do you mind him calling on us?
Do you mind him coming by our place?
I don't object to him calling on us.
I wouldn't say no to him coming by.
All these can be used. Be careful with him/his; his is the possessive pronoun.

Do we insist on him coming early or his coming early?

Again, him.
His book, his car, his phone; you would not use him in those circumstances and take note of my previous comment.

 

[engee30]

The difficulty I referred to was your use of the apostrophe.
We use yours, ours and other possessives without an apostrophe -
Is this book yours?
Ones only hope is that the end comes soon.

Now I guess it's me who's missing something, apex2000.
By the way, in your last example above, it should be:
One's only hope is that the end comes soon.

 

[apex2000]

Fair point, apex2000. But the way you replied to the asker's question left me, at least me, with the feeling that you don't approve of the use of the possessive there:

I do not disapprove; I just prefer the choices I gave as they sound better and the emphasis is on the person rather than the action.

 

[probus]

Turning to another matter arising from ostap's original query, I feel that to call on someone in this sense is British usage and occurs rarely in North America. On the other hand, I think to come by or drop by is mainly an American usage.

Do others agree with that?

 

[apex2000]

Now I guess it's me who's missing something, apex2000.
By the way, in your last example above, it should be:
One's only hope is that the end comes soon.

In this case 'one' takes the place of a normal possessive pronoun. This is not everyday use except for the upper classes and particularly royalty. I was drawing attention to the fact that we do not use the apostrophe - yours, ours, theirs.

 

[Barb_D]

Apex, you cannot take the original poster's use of "his" and change it to "him" with the M bolded to show the change, and not have people think you are correcting an error!

If you think that both his and him are okay (and I do too, because you hear "him" at least as often), then say that. Don't correct his to him and later say you weren't saying it was mistake to use his.

 

[Khosro]

I do not disapprove; I just prefer the choices I gave as they sound better and the emphasis is on the person rather than the action.

Is what apex2000 says about the emphasize correct?