Grammar discussion CQ blog Jul 12, 2012

[profloater]

"My" certainly sounds nicest, but the object pronoun works too.

Consider this:

John is a careless driver.
Here is video footage of him driving carelessly.
The accident was caused by him driving carelessly.
The accident was caused by his driving carelessly.
The accident was caused by he driving carelessly.

The third sentence places the blame on the person and the fourth places the blame on the action. The fifth - using the subject pronoun - is simply incorrect.

"him driving" is also incorrect. "caused by him" is correct if you want to emphasise his guilt, "his driving" is correct.

[Perikles]

"him driving" is also incorrect. "caused by him" is correct if you want to emphasise his guilt, "his driving" is correct.

I think things have moved on since the time when "him driving" was definitely incorrect. People now view both of

The accident was caused by him driving carelessly.
The accident was caused by his driving carelessly.

as correct, for different reasons. The second one contains a gerund, driving, so you would say his as in his trousers. But the first one is arguably a sensible ellipsis of something like

The accident was caused by him [whilst/because he was] driving carelessly.

[Ara Pacis]

I would prefer to say that "the accident was caused by his careless driving."

[grapes]

As people have said, "my" would seem to require "Fraser Cain's, Phil Plait's and my working".

It does not, necessarily. See that link, for discussion.

The accident was caused by him driving carelessly.
The accident was caused by his driving carelessly.

There's no doubt that either of those can be correct. That's not a change though, at least not in the last fifty years (when I learned this in high school :) ). It's just the distinction between whether the person or the action is the object of the preposition.

However, in the case of the OP, it's clearly "ten years of my working" rather than "ten years of me". :)

[Ara Pacis]

The accident was caused by him driving carelessly.
The accident was caused by his driving carelessly.

There's no doubt that either of those can be correct. That's not a change though, at least not in the last fifty years (when I learned this in high school :) ). It's just the distinction between whether the person or the action is the object of the preposition.

However, in the case of the OP, it's clearly "ten years of my working" rather than "ten years of me". :)

Wait, now that I think about it, they have different meanings. I think the gerund can act as either a verb or a noun, and so the verb form makes sense being modifyed by the adverb carelessly, but if used as a noun, then it should be modified by an adjective, such as careless. If you use the possessive pronoun, then the gerund driving would serve as a noun and careless should be used instead, but if carelessly is used then I think the more proper parsing would mean that carelessly modifies was caused; as in, "The accident was carelessly caused by his driving."

If we assume the gerund driving following him is acting as a verb, then the driving carelessly part, would appear to be an unmarked parenthetical, which we might more properly punctuate as "The accident was caused by him (driving carelessly).

[grapes]

The accident was caused by his careless driving. He hit the golf ball into the window, surprising Sheryl, who cut her thumb. Of course, if she'd been moving the okra instead of the knife, it wouldn't have happened.

[Paul Beardsley]

I often wash the dishes. Look, here is a photograph of me doing the dishes.

Gerunds function as nouns, not verbs. As Grapes said, "The accident was caused by his careless driving." Here "driving" is a gerund, so the adjective "careless" is used, not the adverb "carelessly". By that reasoning, "The accident was caused by his driving carelessly" is incorrect, though in fact it's quite acceptable.

In the sentence, "The accident was caused by him driving carelessly," "driving" is the present participle, that is, a verb, and so the adverb "carelessly" is used.

[Gillianren]

Can't I get even a few days?

Okay, Gillian is back. How rested she is, well, that's a different matter. But back.

In this situation, I'd recast the sentence. Put the work first. Use "by." Is it so difficult? And, yes, I still use the subjunctive and think it imparts valuable information.

[Solfe]

Is it time to whip out the "to boldy go" grammar jokes yet?

Now I will be following both Gillian and Paul's threads to improve my grammar skills.