Today’s Writing Tip is about using a gerund with a
possessive pronoun. I find this rule very confusing and almost always get it wrong, particularly when I’m talking. Writing is a slightly different story, but at
least five times out of ten, I’m going to miss this one.
Here are some sample sentences. This is what many of my
authors are likely to write, and this is certainly how I grew up talking in New
Jersey. I didn’t even realize this was a problem until I started finding it in
print everywhere in the books I was reading. Here is what you don’t want to
write:
1.
Why would me being there cheer her
up?
2.
Sarah was disturbed by him falling
asleep during the press conference.
3.
If you don’t mind me asking…
4.
I appreciate you taking my call.
The sentences above are all incorrect. Here’s how
they should be written:
1. Why would my being there cheer her up?
2.
Sarah was disturbed by his falling asleep
during the press conference.
3.
If you don’t mind my asking…
4.
I appreciate your taking my call.
The trick I have learned to identify when I’m likely to get
this wrong is to look for words that end in ING. If we take the first sentence,
“Why would me being there cheer her up?” we have to remember that me is not the focus.
My being there is the focus. My being asked is a gerund, a term that is derived
from a verb, but it functions as a noun, so it should be preceded by a
possessive adjective.
For the most part, I wouldn’t worry about this at all in
conversation, but it’s important to try to get it right in writing. And you can
take great liberties with this in dialogue. If your character wouldn’t talk
this formally, you can write the dialogue exactly the way he or she would talk.
