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I was discussing with some friends about English grammar, and we ended up confused about the accuracy of the sentences below

  1. "I know the motive for your rescheduling the class"
  2. "I know the motive for your rescheduling of the class"
  3. "I know the motive for you rescheduling the class"
  4. "I know your motive for rescheduling the class"

Are all of them correct? Which one would be the most idiomatic?

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  • (4) is shorter and simpler, therefore most idiomatic (in the sense of normal speech). All of them are grammatical; they're just different ways of dealing with -ing forms. There are a lot.
    – John Lawler
    Jul 21 at 20:15
  • Numbers (1), (3) and (4) all use the verb rescheduling, which takes a direct object. Number (2) uses the (deverbal) noun rescheduling, which cannot take a direct object, precisely because it's a noun, and takes instead a preposition phrase complement. Example (4) uses a subjectless gerund-participle clause. The gerund-participle form of the verb is necessary because of the preposition for which usually takes NP complements. In (1) and (3) the gerund-participle has a subject, and we can here observe the fact that gerund-participles can take either plain case or gentitive NPs as subjects.
    – Araucaria - Him
    Jul 22 at 14:07
  • [Pronouns don't have plain case, but instead may be nominative, accusative. If the subject NP is a pronoun, it may be either accusative or genitive. The genitive is thought to be somewhat more formal.] As to which of these is most idiomatic, it just depends on the situation in which they occur!
    – Araucaria - Him
    Jul 22 at 14:09

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