suggest his going / suggest him going

Recently I found that (A) is correct.

I am not sure if (B) is also correct.


(A) I suggest his going to bed early.

(B) I suggest him going to bed early.


Which one should I use?

Please advice, thank you very much!

ysc1230 said:

(A))I suggest his going to bed early.

(B) I suggest him going to bed early.

Click to expand...

A is possible; B is not.

More likely to be heard are:

I suggest going to bed Context will normally make it clear who should be going to bed.
I suggest (that) he goes/(should) go to bed.

I saw this post.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/68402-suggest.html


However, I want to know whether I should use (possessive adjective) + gerund on all the sentences or it only applies on particular type of verbs and situation.

Can you please correct my sentences? I want to make sure I understand this structure.

1. My mother doesn't allow my / me smoking at home.

2. He encourages our / us asking questions on this forum.

Thank you very much for your help!

ysc1230 said:

I saw this post.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/68402-suggest.html


However, I want to know whether I should use (possessive adjective) + gerund on all the sentences or it only applies on particular type of verbs and situation.

Can you please correct my sentences? I want to make sure I understand this structure.

1. My mother doesn't allow my / me smoking at home. "me to smoke" or "my smoking"

2. He encourages our / us asking questions on this forum. "us to ask" or "our asking of" (this last is not likely).

Thank you very much for your help!

Click to expand...

Bhai.

:up:

The OP should be careful not to treat verbs of knowing in the same way:

My mother doesn't know about my / me smoking at home. Either of these is possible but not My mother doesn't know about me to smoke at home

('Just so you know', as we say - informally. ;-))

b

Thanks Teachers~

I still keep finding teaching materials about this subject on the internet. And I found that I am not sure if it is true.

** In traditional English grammar, a noun or pronoun preceding a gerund must be genitive (possessive). However, nowadays, it is getting more common to see the objective used in place of the possessive.
For example:
(a) The policeman catches his stealing in the grocery store.
(b) The policeman catches him stealing in the grocery store.


Could native teachers give some comments?

(a) is wrong, as stealing is not a gerund but the present participle of the verb.

Rover

ysc1230 said:

Thanks Teachers~

I still keep finding teaching materials about this subject on the internet. And I found that I am not sure if it is true.

** In traditional English grammar, a noun or pronoun preceding a gerund must be genitive (possessive). However, nowadays, it is getting more common to see the objective used in place of the possessive.
For example:
(a) The policeman catches his stealing in the grocery store.
(b) The policeman catches him stealing in the grocery store.


Could native teachers give some comments?

Click to expand...

:up: It's a bad example (that is, wrong ;-)), but the point he's making does reflect a change in usage. Prescriptive grammars used to hold that a gerund, when it's an object, should have a possessive. (We've already seen this in an earlier example: My mother doesn't know about my smoking. Some people still do this (I do), but no credible teacher insists on it today. That's why, when I gave that example, I gave the version My mother doesn't know about me smoking. as well.

b

I am really grateful to BobK and Rover_KE for giving me comments.


However, I get more confused when I saw your answer. :roll: <---My problem.

Since I supposed the following sentence was correct.

(The policeman catches his stealing in the grocery store.)

The policeman = noun.
catches = verb.
steal verb. (action) --> stealing (gerund)

Then I do not see anything wrong. Could you give me more information about this subject? I can read by myself, thank you very much!


From Oxford dictionary

Original:
I'll report you to the police if I catch you stealing again.

How about if I rewrite as:
I'll report you to the police if I catch your stealing again.

Is it wrong?

How about if I rewrite as:
I'll report you to the police if I catch your stealing again.

Is it wrong?

Click to expand...

Yes, I answered that in post #7.

Rover