me or mine

[tufguy]

Hi guys,

Please check these sentences,

1) John took a photograph of me when I wasn't looking(I read it in grammer book but I think there should have been "of mine", so could you please tell whether it has the same meaning as "of mine" or not.

2) If somebody says "Take left at the juice shop or traffic signal" so does he mean, from the juice shop.

 

[Rover_KE]

1) 'John took a photo of me' means he used a camera to photograph me. 'John took a photo of mine' means he stole a photograph which belonged to me.

Please ask the unrelated question in a separate thread with its own title.

 

[tufguy]

Is it used for this scenario only(For photograph)?

 

[Rover_KE]

You could also say 'John painted a portrait of me', 'John drew a sketch/charicature of me' and 'John sculpted a bust of me'.

 

[tufguy]

so why we can't say "mine" instead of me here like "John painted a sketch of mine"(I think here it would would not mean that he stole a sketch)?

 

[Barb_D]

so why we can't say "mine" instead of me here like "John painted a sketch of mine"

"Mine" means belonging to me. He took a picture of mine = a picture belonging to me.

(I think here it would would not mean that he stole a sketch)?

You are mistaken.

 

[tufguy]

ok "mine" means a thing that belongs to me, but if I am using "me" then that means directley "Me", so we can use it anywhere instead of "mine" in any situation, it would not be incorrect to use it. But could you please also give me some examples so that I can understand better.

 

[Raymott]

Do you really believe that you can use 'me' anywhere instead of 'mine'? That is what you seem to have written, and it's totally incorrect.

 

[tufguy]

Can't we use "He took a photograph of me" , everybody is saying that we should use "me" here, otherwise it would mean that "he stole a photograph of mine". Please guys, I am getting more confused.

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

Have you read Rover's post? (it's #2).

 

[Barb_D]

Can you see the difference in the pronouns in "the artist painted a picture of him" and "the thief stole a painting of his"?

 

[Weaver67]

(neither a teacher nor an English speaker)

In the sentence "He took a photo of me", the phrase "a photo of me" means simply "a photo with me in it", or "a photo showing me".

What would you think if you saw a picture labeled "A photo of my dog"? What kind of relationship between "dog" and "photo" does "of" suggest in this case?
I, for one, am sure that it would most probably be understood as a picture showing someone's dog - not a picture belonging to someone’s dog.

However, we may hear something like "Why don't you get rid of that old car of yours?" (where "yours" is a possessive pronoun), where the second "of" does suggest the relationship of belonging.

What I am trying to say here is that there are in fact a lot of different kinds of relationships, apart from the one of belonging, that can be expressed by means of the preposition "of".

For more details, I'd suggest you consult a good dictionary (one of them: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/of).