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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

"Losing us.." vs "Losing our..."

Today a student asked me about an example sentence in the text book: "He's losing us customers." The student asked why do we say "losing US.." and not "losing OUR.." ? Does anyone know the answer?
  

Top answer

It's a way of positioning an indirect object. eg He's losing customers f or us . he's losing for us customers.

— Clive

  • It's a way of positioning an indirect object.
  • eg He's losing customers f or us .
  • he's losing for us customers.
  • He's losing us customers; Another example is eg It's costing us money.
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7 Answers
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It's a way of positioning an indirect object.
eg
He's losing customers for us.
he's losing for us customers.
He's losing us customers;

Another example is
eg It's costing us money.
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AnonymousThe student asked why do we say "losing US.." and not "losing OUR.." ?
"us customers" is not a constituent, i.e., grouping, the way "our customers" would be. You could actually use both.

He's losing (us) [ (our) customers ].

'us' is called a dative of interest, a certain kind of indirect object. It's the person or persons w
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Hi Jim!
CalifJim He's losing (us) [ (our) customers ].
What if this "us" is "his customers"?
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He's losing us customers is the correct answer. Emotion: yes
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EjazAlamHe's losing us customers is the correct answer.
Well, I'm sorry for the ambiguity in my question. What if Us = his customers?
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SupercatWhat if Us = his customers?
That's not the first interpretation that comes to mind for native speakers, but it is possible. Then you have 'customers' in apposition to 'us', as also occurs in The government doesn't care about us poor people.

CJ
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You could say
eg Because of his rudeness, he's losing himself customers.
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