I need clarification on this

Question

Greetings.I was wondering if anyone could help clarify an issue I  discovered recently. I would really appreciate it if you could help me  with this.Which one/ones of these sentences is/are correct?1. we really appreciate your giving us your opinion regarding this issue.2. we really appreciate you giving us your opinion regarding this issue.3. we are looking forward to your giving us your feedback4. if it wasn't for my healing, he'd still be half dead.5. it was my talking that convinced him into believing us.6. it was my healing them that made them won the fight.Could you please enlighten me with the correct way of writing/saying the sentences.If some/all of them are wrong, could you please explain why? and what should be the correct sentence? and if some/all are correct,   could you explain it too?Looking  at the examples, you'd notice that I particularly emphasized on the  usage of any continuous verb that is is preceded by the word  "my/your/her/his etc". Could you please also explain the correct  grammatical rules that apply to such cases.Thanks in advance!

Buddhaheart · Accepted Answer

1. We really appreciate your giving us your opinion regarding this issue. OK

2. We really appreciate you giving us your opinion regarding this issue. Not OK

What comes after the main verb ‘appreciate’ is a noun phrase ‘your giving …’. ‘Giving’ is a gerund acting as a noun. What precedes a noun must be a determiner and in this case ‘your’. ‘You’ is a pronoun and therefore is incorrect.

You could turn these sentences into a complex one thus “We really appreciate the fact that you considered our opinion regarding this issue.”

3. We are looking forward to your giving us your feedback. OK

‘To’ here functions as a preposition and NOT as a marker of infinitive. Therefore ‘your giving …’ is noun phrase and the above reasoning also governs.

4. If it wasn't for my healing, he'd still be half dead. OK

Type II Conditional expressing unreal condition. He wasn’t half dead because of me.

5. It was my talking that convinced him into believing us.

‘Convinced’ means ‘caused to believe’. Consider revising the sentence thus: “It was my sweet talking that convinced him.” or “I persuaded him to believe in us.” & etc.

6. It was my healing them that made them (to) win *won the fight.
The verb after ‘made’ is an infinitive without the marker ‘to’. A simple infinitive can’t be in the past tense. For example, make me (to) cry (*cried); make me go (*went) away & so on

Amoras · Answer

First and foremost, thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it.

1. We really appreciate your giving us your opinion regarding this issue. OK

2. We really appreciate you giving us your opinion regarding this issue. Not OK

What comes after the main verb ‘appreciate’ is a noun phrase ‘your giving …’. ‘Giving’ is a gerund acting as a noun. What precedes a noun must be a determiner and in this case ‘your’. ‘You’ is a pronoun and therefore is incorrect

For (1), i understand what you're trying to explain, but my question is, does it apply to all cases? For example, i suppose the sentence "I dont remember you giving me anything that night" is the correct instead of "I dont remember your giving me anything that night".

For (2), doesnt "you giving us your opinion" imply "the act of a person giving his opinion", therefore, doesnt sentence (2) imply the same meaning as "We really appreciate your act in giving us your opinion regarding this issue" ? Same goes for (3). But i think "We are looking forward to hearing your feedback" or "We are looking forward for you to give us your feedback" should be better sentences.

Sorry if im not getting the point, but it bothers me. Thanks again! =)

Cool Breeze · Answer

Buddhaheart1. We really appreciate your giving us your opinion regarding this issue. OK

2. We really appreciate you giving us your opinion regarding this issue. Not OK

What comes after the main verb ‘appreciate’ is a noun phrase ‘your giving …’. ‘Giving’ is a gerund acting as a noun. What precedes a noun must be a determiner and in this case ‘your’. ‘You’ is a pronoun and therefore is incorrect.

Hi Buddhaheart

Your is a possessive form of you. By the same logic, I assume, you would also say:

We really appreciate the French's giving us their opinion regarding this issue.

CB

Amoras · Answer

Hmm.. Actually, i first encountered this issue when my friend brought it up to me after he saw an anime show subtitled "I wonder if my healing their injuries is just going to make the fighting worse". I said to my friend that it was wrong but he said the otherwise.

I said that the phrase "my healing their injuries" was wrong and it should be either "I wonder if healing their injuries will make the fighting worse" or "I wonder if my act in healing their injuries will make the fighting worse".

But he said again that he heard a DJ talking on the radio "we are looking forward to your giving us your feedback". Again, i said it was wrong.

But here Buddhaheart said it was correct. And apparently, i still dont get how and why.

I've done some searches on google on those phrases. It turns out that the sentence "We really appreciate you giving us your opnion regarding this issue" gives more results as compared to "We really appreciate your giving us your opnion regarding this issue". Besides, i hear people saying phrases like "...you giving us... (not specifically this but bottomline is, it's a similar phrase to this)" all the time on TV.

Since im not really an english lecturer or a PhD holder in linguistic field or anything like that, i am unable to give the exact reason why i said it was wrong. But to me, it doesn't sound right. ponder

p/s: hey what happened? the last two posts from this thread are missing. i've already posted this last night but it's missing with one other post. forum did a roll back?

Cool Breeze · Answer

AmorasHmm.. Actually, i first encountered this issue when my friend brought it up to me after he saw an anime show subtitled "I wonder if my healing their injuries is just going to make the fighting worse". I said to my friend that it was wrong but he said the otherwise.

p/s: hey what happened? the last two posts from this thread are missing. i've already posted this last night but it's missing with one other post. forum did a roll back?

Hi Amoras

I wonder if my healing their injuries is just going to make the fighting worse is perfectly grammatical but that doesn't of course mean that everybody thinks it's natural. In this sentence me can't be used instead of my even in less formal style because nothing warrants the object form.

As for the posts that have disappeared, see

CB

Amoras · Answer

Hi CB.

Yeah. I realize that replacing "my" with "me" is not possible (although a lot of people still use it when talking informally), but what i was arguing with my friend was not about that. It was rather about the phrase "my healing their injuries" itself. I cant explain why i said so though. But consider this sentence "My reading his book without his permission made him angry", now I dont know about other people, but that sure sounds awkward and grammatically wrong to me. Hence, by using the same logic, i concluded that "I wonder if my healing their injuries is just going to make the fighting worse" is also wrong.

One too many opinions, suggestions and contradictions. LOL!

Owh. I figured that something must have happened to the server.

Cool Breeze · Answer

AmorasBut consider this sentence "My reading his book without his permission made him angry", now I dont know about other people, but that sure sounds awkward and grammatically wrong to me.

The sentence is stilted but grammatical.

CB

I need clarification on this

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions