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Creolejazz Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

"His being..." vs "Him being..."

0 Greetings! Take a look at the first three words of this sentence: 02br
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00"Besides his being a role model for each person in the family, he also knows how to have fun." 02br
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00I know that "his being" is correct. Some people write "him being" which is incorrect. While I know which is correct, I don't know how to explain WHY "his" is correct and "him" is wrong. Could someone provide me the RULE that explains why it should be written "his being" rather than "him being" so that I sound like I know what I'm talking about? 05002br
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00Thanks. 02br
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00Dave 010id1
  

Top answer

0 Creolejazz, 02br 00Welcome to the English Forums! 02br 02br 00I can't provide a Rule, but I think that, in "his being", "being" is used as a noun, hence requires a possessive adjective, not a pronoun. 0-

— Pieanne

  • 0 Creolejazz, 02br 00Welcome to the English Forums!
  • 02br 02br 00I can't provide a Rule, but I think that, in "his being", "being" is used as a noun, hence requires a possessive adjective, not a pronoun.
  • 0-
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52 Answers
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0 Creolejazz, 02br
00Welcome to the English Forums! 02br
02br
00I can't provide a Rule, but I think that, in "his being", "being" is used as a noun, hence requires a possessive adjective, not a pronoun. 0-
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0 Re: "Besides his being a role model for each person in the family, he also knows how to have fun." 02br
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00I believe that the sentence is incorrect. There is no need for "his" and the sentence should be:- 02br
02br
00"Besides being a role model for each person in the family, he also knows how to have fun." 02br
00or 02br
00"
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0 Thanks for the feedback. I am quite confident that my original sentence is correct. Likewise, your two suggestions are correct. Either way, I'm still looking for a rule or explanation of why "him being" is not correct. Pieanne's suggestion has me puzzled as I can't get my mind around "being" being a noun. 0-
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0 Yes, it's possible, Creole, like in "reading is my favourite pastime" 02br
00"reading" = the fact of reading. 02br
02br
00cf: 02br
00"I'm used to this car" (used to + noun) 02br
00"I'm used to walking" 0-
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0 creolejazz, 02br
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00If you want to use "his being......." as a noun(phrase) subject, I'll give you an example:- 02br
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00"His(authority) being the manager, gives him the right to fire any worker he deems unfit for the job." 02br
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00In your original sentence, I still believe that the "his" is incorrctly used and Pieanne's su
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0 mAYBE THIS WILL HELP, 02br
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05000 040pid32528
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0 Hmmm. Your example, "His being the manager..." is certainly correct. As is my original example, "...his being a role model..." 02br
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00However, (not to complicate things too much) I don't believe you need a comma after "manager" as it separates the subject and verb. 02br
02br
00I'm still looking for the rule/explanation as to why ..."him being the r
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0 I'm not that good at grammar terms... 02br
02br
00"him" is a personal pronoun, in the complement form. You could have "I don't like him being the role model for the whole family (or whatever). 02br
00But in "him being the role model for each person (...) he also knows ..." , "him" cannot be a complement. 02br
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00BTW, I think the sentence
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0 pieanne, 02br
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00Your example, "his(position) being the role model for each person (...) doesn't prevent him from having fun"( with "position" understood of course) is of a similar construct as my previous example which I paste below:- 02br
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00"His(authority) being the manager, gives him the right to fire any worker he deems unfit for the job."
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0 Well, I read them as: "the fact that he is...", hence a gerund used as a noun... 02br
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00But as I've just said, I'm a very bad grammarian, so why don't we wait til someone else reads our posts? 0-
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