Object pronoun with gerund

Question

Hello!I would like to ask you if this sentence is grammatically acceptable:In spite of me warning them not to do it, they went on buying useless things.It doesn't seem wrong to me. I believe I have heard similar sentence constructions in the past, with an object pronoun (like "me") being used before a gerund. That's why I wrote this. But I'm really not sure if this sort of thing is actually correct in English. Is it?Thanks in advance!

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

MrGuedesBut I'm really not sure if this sort of thing is actually correct in English. Is it?

Yes, it is definitely standard English.

GPY · Answer

In formal English I would always use "my".

MrGuedes · Answer

GPYIn formal English I would always use "my".

But wouldn't this be acceptable? I wrote this in a test, and my teacher considered it wrong. What do you think?

Fivejedjon · Answer

In that particular sentence, I would use 'me'. As a teacher, I would accept both 'me' and 'my'.

GPY · Answer

MrGuedesBut wouldn't this be acceptable? I wrote this in a test, and my teacher considered it wrong. What do you think?

It depends on the register. "me" would be pretty common in informal or everyday English. In formal writing it looks a bit off, in my opinion.

RandomGuy · Answer

MrGuedesmy teacher considered it wrong.

Your teacher must be a prescriptivist. Prescriptivists tend to confuse informality with ungrammaticality, and assume that only formal style is grammatically correct.

MrGuedes · Answer

Aspara GusYour teacher must be a prescriptivist. Prescriptivists tend to confuse informality with ungrammaticality, and assume that only formal style is grammatically correct.

Maybe, although that was not her proposed correction. In this exercise, I was supposed to re-write the following sentence:

I warned them not to do it, but they went on buying useless things.

And I had to begin with "In spite of". So I wrote:

In spite of me warning them not to do it, they went on buying useless things.

My teacher said the correction was one of the following two options:

In spite of having been warned by me, they went on buying useless things.
In spite of my warning they went on buying useless things. (with no "them not to do it" after "my warning")

So I wrote something that was also correct, and she considered it wrong. That's what she did.

Fivejedjon · Answer

If public examinations in your country are marked by people with the same prescriptive views as your teacher, she may be doing you a favour. In some countries in which I taught, I sometimes had to tell learners that native speakers would find a certain construction perfectly acceptable, but they should avoid it in public examinations.

MrGuedes · Answer

fivejedjonIf public examinations in your country are marked by people with the same prescriptive views as your teacher, she may be doing you a favour. In some countries in which I taught, I sometimes had to tell learners that native speakers would find a certain construction perfectly acceptable, but they should avoid it in public examinations.

Well, yes, it looks like that's the case. I've just talked to her, and she says this kind of sentence construction would be acceptable in informal speech, but she's there to make a formal evaluation.

But it's worse. She says she wouldn't even accept the alternative correction you guys are proposing — In spite of my warning them not to do it (...). She says that would also be ungrammatical, and yet you say it would even be more formal than replacing it with "me", as I did. She says instead that she is "absolutely sure" (her words) that both "(...) me warning them (...)" and "(...) my warning them (...)" are ungrammatical, and she says she is going to bring me a grammar book showing that. Let's see how it goes...

Meanwhile, guys, thank you for your help! I'll let you know if I have anything else to say!

Fivejedjon · Answer

MrGuedesShe says she wouldn't even accept the alternative correction you guys are proposing — In spite of my warning them not to do it (...). She says that would also be ungrammatical,

Please try to write down what the grammar book says, and note its title and author. WE'd be interested to read what is said.

There is no shadow of doubt that ln spite of my warning them not to do it ... is correct English. There are several citations for in spite of/despite + possessive + verb+ing + pronoun/noun in COCA.

It's also correct without 'them', but warning is then a noun.

Object pronoun with gerund

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions