64 English Grammar Demystifi ed
- Blame it on him and I.
- She takes the children to the playground more than him.
Ownership Pronouns
When pronouns seem to take the role of adjectives, that is, modifying or describing
another word, they can cause confusion. Let’s clear that up right now. The fact is
that a personal pronoun sometimes shows ownership:
Our choosing a car became a diffi cult issue.Whose choice of cars was it? It was ours.
Your losing weight is the only thing we talk about!Whose loss of weight was it? It was yours.
I know that you oppose my leaving the meeting early.Whose leaving was it? It was my leaving.
What do the phrases our choosing,your losing, and my leaving have in common?
They are all introduced by a personal ownership pronoun that is then followed by
an -ing ending verb known to grammarians as gerunds. What is so interesting about
English is that you can take a verb that ends in -ing and have it perform as a noun
would. For example:
Our choosing a car became a diffi cult issue.In the preceding sentence, what is the subject? If you said Our choosing, you won
the grammar prize! The gerund phrase acts as a noun and functions as the subject.
The ownership pronoun, Our, does the job of an adjective and modifi es choosing.
Look at the rest of the sentence. What is the verb in the sentence? It is became.