I heard John shouting or I heard John's shouting?

Question

Which of the following sentences is correct?1) I heard John shouting.2) I heard John's shouting.Thank you.

Englishmaven · Accepted Answer

#2 is correct. "Shouting" in this case is a gerund. That means it is the +ing form of the verb, the present participle, being used as a noun.

I heard the story.

I heard shouting.

Both "story" and "shouting" are nouns that are the direct objects of "heard."

Before gerunds, the descriptive words are adjectives, just as they are before any other noun.

I heard terrible shouting.

I heard weird, strange shouting.

So "John" is not in any way the subject of "shouting."

Adjectives give us the information of what kind, which one/s, and how much/many. In this case, the adjective tells which one, which is what possessive words do. We use the possessive form of the pronoun or noun before the gerund: John's shouting.

I'm tired of your interrupting me every time I try to speak.

His running without proper shoes has damaged his legs.

John's running without proper shoes has damaged his legs.

CalifJim · Answer

teal lime
Which of the following sentences is correct?
1) I heard John shouting.
2) I heard John's shouting.
Thank you.

They are both correct.

1) shows the catenative use of a verb of perception, "hear" in this case.

Sally heard the girls giggling in their room.
I saw the police running toward the bank.
Steve watched Julie frying eggs.

2) uses a possessive with a gerund to focus specifically on the gerund: shouting. I heard (the action of) shouting.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you'll hear 1) rather than 2).

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=heard+him+shouting%2Cheard+his+shouting&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cheard%20him%20shouting%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cheard%20his%20shouting%3B%2Cc0

CJ

I heard John shouting or I heard John's shouting?

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