suggest him/his buying a car

[Verona_82]

Hello,

A colleague asked me yesterday about the difference between the following sentences:

We suggested him buying a car
We suggested his buying a car.

She's interested to know if 'suggest' works in the same way as, for example, 'imagine', since both verbs can be followed by an -ing form:

I imagined him doing that
I imagined his doing that

Personally, I would use neither a posessive nor an object pronoun after 'suggest' and opt for a "we suggested that he..." structure, but I cannot explain why, and of course I might be wrong.

I'd be very grateful if someone could comment on that.
Thank you.

 

[bhaisahab]

Hello,

A colleague asked me yesterday about the difference between the following sentences:

We suggested him buying a car
We suggested his buying a car.

She's interested to know if 'suggest' works in the same way as, for example, 'imagine', since both verbs can be followed by an -ing form:

I imagined him doing that
I imagined his doing that

Personally, I would use neither a posessive nor an object pronoun after 'suggest' and opt for a "we suggested that he..." structure, but I cannot explain why, and of course I might be wrong.

I'd be very grateful if someone could comment on that.
Thank you.

I would say, "We suggested (that) he buy a car".

 

[Verona_82]

I would say, "We suggested (that) he buy a car".

Thank you.
So would I. But.... is it because native speakers just don't use possessive and object pronouns with this verb?