marriage

Maple wrote:

Interesting. Thanks for this information!

Going back to the original context, I would say, “nobody can stop our getting married” is perfectly fine.  Maybe it’s me, [prevent] sounds rough on the edges.

Sure, prevent something from happening sounds perfectly correct.

We must prevent their wedding ceremony from taking place- fine. But if this marriage is opposed, then the opposing feeling should want to stop it all together. Prevent gives me a sense of allowance somehow.  

1. Nobody can prevent our getting married.

2. Nobody can prevent our marriage.

These are both fine, in terms of grammar; my dictionary gives two examples of this usage, which accord with #1 and #2 respectively:

3. I shall not prevent your going.

4. Should anything occur to prevent his return...

However, both #1 and #2 are quite formal; in everyday usage, it would probably be more usual to say:

5. Nobody can prevent us from getting married.

Or:

6. Nobody can stop us getting married.

(I have to admit, "Nobody can stop our getting married" sounds a little creaky to me; but perhaps other members would disagree.)

MrP

Now I think I've found my comprehension bug of the word "prevent" in post 258916.

I failed to comprehend that the meaning of "from-happening" is already possessed by the word "prevent" itself. See:

We took steps to prevent the strike.= We took steps to keep the strike from happening.

We must prevent their wedding ceremony = We must keep their wedding ceremony from taking place.

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CalifJim wrote:

Maybe it's a this-side-of-the-pond / that-side-of-the-pond thing, ............

"a this-side-of-the-pond/that-side-of-the-pond thing" This is my first time to see this idiom, but let me guess its meaning: The views are different from the two sides of the pond. So this is not a matter of right-or-wrong, but a matter of on which position one stands.

Oops! What a huge pond

Thanks for your explanation.

Maple