Gerund

Question

Thank you for looking my question. I'm studying English but unsure of judging the gramaticality of the following sentences. Would you please help me?

a. John didn't remember Mary buying groceries.
b. John didn't remember what Mary buying. (as an indirect question)

c. What did John remember Mary buying?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

a. John didn't remember Mary's buying groceries.
b. John didn't remember what Mary was buying.
c. What did John remember Mary's buying?

Cool Breeze · Answer

Mister MicawberJohn didn't remember Mary's buying groceries.

Hi MrM,

This is interesting.

Would you also say:

John didn't remember anybody's buying groceries.
John didn't remember the Japanese's buying groceries.

CB

Mister Micawber · Answer

Not say; write.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Mister MicawberNot say; write.

What about: John didn't remember the French's buying any groceries.

CB

Mister Micawber · Answer

No, and I'm getting tired of this. The Frenchman's.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you for answering my question. You means that the subject of a gerund only takes genitive forms, don't you? My dictionary, however, says that the sentence below is allowed. This example shows we can also have accusative form with gerund.

·Mary prefers (John/ his/ him) swimming in this river.

Do you feel this is not natural?

Cool Breeze · Answer

Mister MicawberThe Frenchman's.

That would hardly be correct if there were a group of French people.

This is what Otto Jespersen writes about the subject of the gerund in Essentials of English Grammar:

"The genitive is to some extent falling into disuse before a gerund, at any rate in the spoken language. This tendency is strengthened by the fact that the formation or use of a genitive presents some serious difficulties.

Some words have no genitive or possessive at all. If they have to be used as subjects before a gerund it is therefore necessary to take the common-case form. The same holds good of some word-groups, which cannot easily be put in the genitive:

He would not hear of that being possible.
In spite of those three telling the story, I could not believe it.

The difficulty is even greater if one of the words joined in this way is a pesonal pronoun; hence such constructions as this:

There was no need of both of them making a journey.

As there is a general disinclination to use the genitive of words which do not designate a person, constructions like the following are rare:

His mother kicked a little at first against the money's having gone to him.
There seemed to be some slight appearance of the gale's abating.

Even in the case of words denoting living beings, a genitive of which is easily formed, the common case is frequent in this combination. The following sentences are all taken from writers of repute (nineteenth and twentieth centuries):

I have no objection to the author being known.
It ended in the doctor being sent for.
There is nothing ridiculous in an English gentleman entertaining feelings of loyalty."

CB

Mister Micawber · Answer

Mary prefers (John/ his/ him) swimming in this river. Do you feel this is not natural?-- Not at all; but I do feel that the object pronoun is acceptable only in informal situations and that marks will be deducted in student essays for failing to use the genitive form.

Notice CB's Jespersen quote: The genitive is to some extent falling into disuse before a gerund, at any rate in the spoken language. (Jespersen was writing in 1933, but he was a bright fellow.)

Gerund

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