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What is the best way to say this?

Because of yours and the John Wichel Foundation’s grant we are able to continue our mission to serve all Texans with diabetes.

Should it be

Because of your and John Wichel Foundation's grant, we are able . . . OR
Because of yours and the John Wichel Foundation's grant, we are able . . .

It's a double possessive with the word your. No matter how I write it, it doesn't sound right.

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3 Answers 3

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When using them separately, we'd use-

  • Your grant...
  • John Wichel Foundation's grant...

When using them together, combining them with an 'and'-

...your and John Wichel Foundation's grants...

... which, when placed into the context of this sentence, would be- "Because of your and the John Wichel Foundation’s grants, we are able to continue our mission to serve all Texans with diabetes."

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  • 1
    I think this is a good answer, but do you think the pluaralization on "grant" is grammatically necessary? I think it helps facilitate the (likely) intended meaning, but the same meaning is accessible by dropping the plural.
    – DyingIsFun
    Commented Jun 8, 2016 at 19:43
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    @Silenus If they made more than one grant, pluralize grant. If they made one grant, it remains singular—no s.
    – Stan
    Commented Jun 8, 2016 at 19:51
  • @Stan, fair enough. I guess I was wondering about the grammaticality of sentences like: "Your and my dog play great together." This sounds fine to me despite the fact that 'dog' is not plural. There is an elided 'dog' after 'your.' The same could happen with 'grant'.
    – DyingIsFun
    Commented Jun 8, 2016 at 19:53
  • @Silenus "Your dog and mine play great together," might be easier on the ear.
    – Stan
    Commented Jun 8, 2016 at 19:57
  • Thank you guys! I had no idea my post was answered!
    – Rlativity1
    Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 16:28
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Kapeezy's is the logical answer, but we don't always speak logically.

My sense is that yours and the John Wichel Foundation’s grant is not that uncommon.

I had a look at the iWeb corpus, searching for your[s] and someone else's.

I found that yours and someone else's had 108 hits, but I count around 36 of them before noun phrases (like "grant"), and the rest in contexts where you would expect yours on its one (eg Love a kid today - yours or someone else's.). Your or someone else's got 48 hits, all of them before NPs.

On the basis of that (one) corpus, then, your is more common in that context, but not overwhelmingly so. The GloWbE corpus gave me smaller numbers, but the same relationship: 6 your to 5 yours. On the other hand, the NOW corpus (News on the Web, so presumably mostly professionally written) has a much larger difference: 285 to 5.

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  • We've got to go with the science. But with small sample sizes, the noisiest, not perhaps the best role models, tend to get heard.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 16:01
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    I’m not surprised that variations occur. There are many possibilities 1 {Poss. Adj.} and {Poss. Adj. + noun.} – Her and my bike have been stolen. 2 {Poss. Adj. + noun} and {Poss. Adj. + noun} - Her bike and my bike have been stolen. 3 {Poss. Pron.} and {Poss. Adj. noun} – Hers, and my bike, has been stolen. 4 {Poss. Adj. + noun} and {Poss. Pron.} – Her bike and mine have been stolen. 5 {Poss. Pron.} and {Poss. Pron.} - Hers and mine have been stolen.
    – Greybeard
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 16:10
  • @Greybeard: yes. It's one of the areas where native speakers are often unsure.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 16:50
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A: Why are the police at school?

B: A bike has been stolen

A: Whose?

B(i): Your or someone else's bike – Your is a possessive adjective (and determiner) and must have a noun as its subject

Or

B(ii):Yours or someone else's – Yours is a possessive pronoun and cannot accept a noun.

someone else's is a genitive and as such it can act as a possessive adjective (determiner) and as a possessive pronoun.

Compare

It is mine

It is my bike.

It is John’s.

It is John’s bike.

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