Timeline for "He had me do this" vs "He had me doing this" vs "He had my doing this"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 12, 2021 at 21:58 | comment | added | Lambie | He had me doing the laundry at night. =OK//He had my doing the laundry at night. BUZZER. I really don't understand how this answer could have gotten three points when the first point misses the point of the question..... | |
| Nov 11, 2017 at 18:24 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @tchrist I don’t quite follow you there. Are you agreeing or disagreeing with me? The most natural way to phrase your example would be “His/him constantly calling her at night was the problem”; I don’t really have a preference between the two. Neither works very well with always, though, I agree. | |
| Nov 11, 2017 at 18:17 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @JanusBahsJacquet In “Her boss always calling her was the problem” (or the longer “It was her boss always calling her at night that was the trouble"), it’s clear that her boss is the subject of the non-finite verb calling her. To me that's the same as “Him always calling her was the problem”, and while I know determiners can apply to an entire gerund phrase, “His always calling her was the problem” really isn't how people naturally say that—and “His constant calling of her at night was the problem” is worse still. Oblique subjects of non-finite verb phrases seem here to stay. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 4:17 | vote | accept | Lucidity of Power | ||
| Jan 21, 2016 at 2:25 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @LucidityofPower Grammatically, yes, it's correct strictu sensu. But it means “She was in possession of the cheating that belonged to me”, i.e., it is completely parallel to “She had my coat”. If the intention is for it to mean “She made me cheat”, then it is not grammatically correct. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 2:23 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | It's not really any more logical to say ‘my being there’ than ‘me being there’. Both are perfectly logical and in common use. Doesn't matter if there's a “he said” part or not. | |
| Jan 21, 2016 at 1:59 | comment | added | Lucidity of Power | Wait. In this sentence, "She had my cheating" doesn't make any sense unless it's the title of a book, it seems a lot more semantics related than grammar. Grammatically it's correct, though, no? | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 23:30 | comment | added | Ricky | @HotLicks: As I mention in the second edit, the correct phraseology would be "Me being there brightened up the morons' lives." Without the "he said" part. He said, she said. Who cares. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 23:28 | history | edited | Ricky | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 20, 2016 at 23:26 | comment | added | Hot Licks | I would never say "He said me being here was wonderful." It would always be "my", if I used that sentence structure. Though I would likely choose other words. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:52 | comment | added | Ricky | @LucidityofPower: More explanations are in order, then. I need to leave; I'll be back in an hour and explain it all to you. Be patient. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:50 | comment | added | Lucidity of Power | Okay, then what about a different example? "If the teacher had my cheating on the exam, she'd fail me." This works, right? And if it does, isn't it the same as "If he had my doing the work?" I fail to see the difference (grammatically) in these sentences: "He had my policing the perimeter" vs "He had me policing the perimeter"..... "She had my baking the cake" vs "She had me bake the cake"..... "If I had his presenting me in court, I would have won" vs "If I had him present me in court, I would have won." | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:45 | history | edited | Ricky | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:38 | comment | added | Ricky | @LucidityofPower: Okay, I'm going to add this to the answer. Hang on. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:34 | comment | added | Lucidity of Power | Can you please explain why "He had me do this” is right and "He had my doing this" is wrong, yet it works in the example FumbleFingers gave? Why is "me do this" grammatically correct in this particular sentence? Please help. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:33 | comment | added | Ricky | @FumbleFingers: That's an entirely different issue. And do please put the NYTimes bit back in. You made the edit when I had already incorporated it in my answer. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:32 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | It might be a bit convoluted, but I can't really see anything wrong with, say, I got the cane for passing notes under the desk in last year's exams. I thought that was all forgotten by this year's exams, but the teacher obviously had my cheating in mind, because he made me sit at a desk well away from all the other pupils. I think there has to be something along the lines of in mind there though. | |
| Jan 20, 2016 at 22:17 | history | answered | Ricky | CC BY-SA 3.0 |