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Usenet Posted 19 years ago
Usage

Your and john's dog?

Hi everyone,
I have a question I'd like to ask. The other day I was writing and I typed up the following question:
Is that your and John's dog?
I was wondering if this is grammatically correct, and if it isn't, how could I better compose this? I have to admit that the way it's composed sounds kind of disjointed to me, especially with "and" following directly after "your", but I suppose that I've heard it used in informal situations before. That's probably why it rolled off my keyboard so easily, but after re-reading it it sounded a bit off.
Would these alternatives be any better, or just as bad as the first? I think that number 1 would be the most grammatically correct, but if you have an alternative of your own, please share:
1)Is that your dog and John's?
2)Is that yours and John's dog?
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. The other day I was writing and I typed up ... have an alternative of your own, please share: 1)Is that your dog and John's?

  • [nq:1]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask.
  • The other day I was writing and I typed up ...
  • have an alternative of your own, please share: 1)Is that your dog and John's?
  • [/nq] Why bring John into it at all?
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28 Answers
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[nq:1]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. The other day I was writing and I typed up ... have an alternative of your own, please share: 1)Is that your dog and John's? 2)Is that yours and John's dog?[/nq]
Why bring John into it at all?
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[nq:2]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. ... your dog and John's? 2)Is that yours and John's dog?[/nq]
[nq:1]Why bring John into it at all?[/nq]
Dear John,
We're through.
Sincerely yours, and the dog's
If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)
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[nq:2]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. ... your dog and John's? 2)Is that yours and John's dog?[/nq]
[nq:1]Why bring John into it at all?- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text -[/nq]
I hope that someone here can help me regarding what I asked about in my opening post. . It would be very much appreciated.

tysteel
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[nq:1]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. The other day I was writing and I typed up ... That's probably why it rolled off my keyboard so easily, but after re-reading it it sounded a bit off.[/nq]
It is grammatically correct. I agree that it sounds disjointed. "Is that John's and your dog?" may flow better but it is still disjointed.
[nq:1]Would these alternatives be any better
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[nq:2]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. ... your dog and John's? 2)Is that yours and John's dog?[/nq]
I think you were right but I also agree it sounds clumsy. More important, it sounds "wrong".
I would ask "Is that dog yours and John's?"
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[nq:1]Is that your and John's dog?[/nq]
"You and John's" sounds most correct to me. This doesn't work with other personal pronouns, but because the subjective and objective forms of "you" are the same it seems right to treat it the same as a noun.

With any other personal pronoun, I would invert the order and make both words possessive: "John's and his dog," "John's and my dog." "John'
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[nq:2]Is that your and John's dog?[/nq]
[nq:1]"You and John's" sounds most correct to me. This doesn't work with other personal pronouns, but because the subjective and ... be there outside of a compound: "yours and her dog," "theirs and my dog," etc. I couldn't say why. =ACR[/nq]
When one item, or group of items, is owned jointly by two or more persons and the persons are named by nouns,
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[nq:2]"You and John's" sounds most correct to me.[/nq]
I don't know. "I'm going to pick up you and John's dog at the vet" sounds like there are two patients at the vet.
This doesn't work with
[nq:2]other personal pronouns, but because the subjective and objective forms ... "theirs and my dog," etc. I couldn't say why. ¬R[/nq]
[nq:1]When one item, or group of items, is owned jointly
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[nq:1]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. The other day I was writing and I typed up ... have an alternative of your own, please share: 1)Is that your dog and John's? 2)Is that yours and John's dog?[/nq]
Does that dog belong to you and John?
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[nq:2]Hi everyone, I have a question I'd like to ask. ... your dog and John's? 2)Is that yours and John's dog?[/nq]
[nq:1]Does that dog belong to you and John?[/nq]
I agree with you (and another poster who made a similar suggestion) that this is normal English, but it doesn't have exactly the same meaning. The original phrasing implicitly assumes as a known fact that "you" and John togethe

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