gerunds with possessives

[last14]

I wonder which of these sentences are correct.

I appreciate you helping.
I appreciate your helping.

#2 It makes sense but I've seen #1 more.What's the rules behing 'you helping' or is it a slang phrase?

I mean , can it be like this ''The man who writes is my friend = The man writing is my friend?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Both are fine and mean the same thing. You can also say: "I appreciate your help."

(But NOT "I appreciate you help"!)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

PS - That should be: I wonder which of these sentences IS correct.

 

[last14]

So why ? If you know , can you explain this to me because I want to know how it can be you helping instead of '' your helping''.

 

[Odessa Dawn]

***NOT A TEACHER***

Hello. :-D

Answered here.

We recommend posting a question on one forum only initially. If you do not get a satisfactory answer from that forum and you feel that you have exhausted its possibilities, then of course trying a different forum might help. It is only courteous however, to tell the second forum that you have already asked the question on another forum and then give a precis of the answers you received there, along with an explanation of why you are now looking elsewhere.

(emsr2d2)

 

[Rover_KE]

What's the rule about 'you helping' or is it a slang phrase?

It is not slang.

 

[TheParser]

I want to know how it can be "you helping" instead of '' your helping''.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Last:

That question has long interested many teachers and books.

Here is one theory. I am NOT saying that everyone agrees with it. (As Mr. Bernstein said, many people accept EITHER pronoun with no problem.)

James: You are my best friend. I need some help with my algebra.
Mona: No problem. Let's meet at the library at 4 p.m.
James: As always, I really appreciate your helping me. The help you give me always makes a big difference.

James: I know that you do not like me. So I will not ask you to help me with my algebra.
George: That's true. I do not like you very much, but I know how hard algebra is, so I will help you this one time.
James: Really?! Wow! I can't tell you how much I appreciate you helping me with something!

In the first dialogue, we use "your" because the emphasis is on the "helping."

In the second dialogue, we use "you" because the emphasis is on the person doing the helping. James cannot believe that George would help him, and James really, really appreciates him (James's enemy!) helping with the homework.



James

P.S. If you want to make your teachers happy, I suggest that you use "your" in every sentence. I think, however, many (most?) people here in the United States find "you" very natural in most sentences.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

That's a good explanation, James.

Purely empirically, it has always seemed to me that (in literature at least) the possessive is much more common in AmE than in BrE. I almost never spontaneously use it myself.

 

[last14]

thank you but actually I knew this.The thing that I wonder is what exactly the rule is and where else I can use.

 

[MikeNewYork]

As others have said, either form can be used in almost all cases.

The form with the possessive is possessive adjective + gerund (a verbal noun).
The other form is noun/objective case pronoun + participle (acting as an adjective modifying the noun or pronoun).