Which one of the following is correct?
The question was asked in SNAP 2009 and I can't understand why they said that the only right answer is option 1.
I hear people saying 2 all the time, and I read it that way often enough, so what’s supposed to be wrong with option 2?
Or is the test itself wrong?
Traditional grammar insisted that since forgetting in your example was a gerund, i.e. a present participle used as a noun, then it could only be specified by a noun/pronoun in the possessive case. Further, it was assumed that a gerund, unlike participles, could not take subjects.
If you apply this rule, which the test assumes you have learned, then you will choose his over him. Many writing guides, even as YouTube videos, continue to insist on this rule.
While this construction is still quite frequent in more formal written language, it is quite rare in unrehearsed spoken English except among older speakers who have incorporated the rule into their own idiolect. The trend since the 1950s, however, selectively aligns standards for writing with those for educated speech, so that today, many writers would consider using the possessive a relict of the 19th century.
Insisting on the possessive in your example, unless the makers of the test are close to retirement age, is simply pedantic. A simple remark about someone forgetting his own birthday is hardly in a formal register, so the objective case would be the more idiomatic choice.
That's a very good question.
In fact, even though it is technically correct,
Can you imagine his forgetting his own birthday?
sounds kind of silly, while
Can you imagine him forgetting his own birthday?
is absolutely grammatically correct.
The confusion (in the minds of those who compose such tests) stems, one would imagine, from the nominative vs dative-accusative concept.
Staunch proponents of perfect grammar have been scaring the less-grammatically-fortunate for decades into substituting "I" for "me" regardless of the case. Thanks to their efforts we now have such pearls as
It didn't matter to her and I.
Which is inconsistent, to say the least, since any case other than nominative that requires the speaker/writer to use the non-nominative form of personal pronouns ("her," "him," "them") would naturally and logically require using "me" rather than "I."
But: folks of humble origins and less-than-thorough education are now afraid to use "me," as well as "him" lest they be deemed "uncultured."
That said,
I'm tired of his criticizing everything!
though technically correct, sounds ... uh ... stupid ... or awkward, if you will, and
I'm tired of his criticism
is normally substituted, or, more frequently,
I'm tired of him criticizing everything
which flows a lot better, overtly colloquial though it may be.
The latter is what the authors of the test seemed to have had in mind when they urged the testees to avoid using "him" at all costs.
