You, Your OR Yours ???

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J4mes_bond25

#153684 Mon, 31 Oct 05 10:55 PM

Wonder if anyone could enlighten me a bit towards the use of "you" & "yours" ???

Few examples are as follows:

I very much like the look of you/your/yours ???
Could I dare seeing a snap of you/your/yours ???
I love that lovely plummy accent of you/your/yours ???
Blimey, that dress doesn't do any justice to the svelte figure of you/your/yours ??? Big Smile [:D]

J4mes_bond25

Joined on Mon, Oct 31 2005

Land of Hope & Glory

New Member (48)

Nope, I'm NOT God ..... I'm British (the next best thing) !!!

Accents

Clive

#153701 Mon, 31 Oct 05 11:43 PM

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

Wonder if anyone could enlighten me a bit towards the use of "you" & "yours" ???

your is a possessive adjective. This is my book. That is your book.

yours is a possessive pronoun. Is this book mine? No, it's yours.

you is a pronoun. I have read this book. Have you read it?

... examples:

I very much like the look of you. Sounds fine. Don't say it to a sailor.

I very much like the look of your. The sentence is incomplete. You could finish it by saying I very much like the look of your .... aspidistra.

I very much like the look of yours. You definitely shouldn't say this to a sailor. He's liable to respond Great! I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours!

I hope this helps.

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (21,168)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Possessives, Nouns, Pronouns

J4mes_bond25

#153704 Mon, 31 Oct 05 11:50 PM

Thanks for your reply. Come to that, how about if I wish to say "I'm waiting for the reply of Clive/Clive's ?" OR "He's not your teacher, he's our/ours ???"

Clive wrote:

I very much like the look of you. Sounds fine. Don't say it to a sailor.

How about if I say the same to a blonde bombshell wearing a deep V-neck top over a ruffled skirt ??? Big Smile [:D]

J4mes_bond25

Clive

#153715 Tue, 01 Nov 05 12:22 AM

Hi again,

I'm waiting for Clive's reply or I got your reply. I'm waiting for Clive's. Sure, that's the normal way of speaking.

I'm waiting for the reply of Clive Also OK, but rather more formal.

He's not your teacher, he's our. No, it's not grammatical.

.... he's ours. Fine. Must be a good teacher, if two classes are fighting over him!

How about if I say the same to a blonde bombshell wearing a deep V-neck top over a ruffled skirt ?? Well, much depends on: A. Your gender. B. The bombshell's gender. C. Whether the bombshell is attracted to people on the basis of their grammar.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Grammar, Genders

paco2004

#153740 Tue, 01 Nov 05 01:54 AM

Hi

May I throw in my two cents?

The original sense of a possessive pronoun like 'yours' or 'hers' is 'your thing' or 'her thing'. Therefore, to say 'that nice body of hers' would sound somewhat weird because the preposition 'of' itself connotes 'possession'. But we can't say like 'that her nice body' because 'that' and 'her' cannot go along because they belong to the same category as a pre-modifier of a noun. So we can take 'of hers' in a phrase like 'that nice body of hers' as a special usage where 'of hers' works as a 'post-modifying possessive adjective': * "that nice body (her)"

paco

paco2004

Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004

Senior Member (4,095)

In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.

Possessives, Prepositions, Nouns, Pronouns

paco2004

#153762 Tue, 01 Nov 05 03:10 AM

Hello Teachers

I have a question in regard to the discussion here.

Suppose you possess a picture where your mother is shown up. In this case, you would say "my picture of my mother". Next, suppose your father owns it, then, perhaps you say "my father's picture of my mother". Furthermore, suppose you want to modify the noun phrase with an adjective phrase such as "that beautiful". In this case, do you say "that beautiful picture of my father's of my mother" or "that beautiful picture of my mother of my father's"?

paco

paco2004

Regards, Nouns, Noun phrases

Clive

#153771 Tue, 01 Nov 05 04:32 AM

Hi Paco,

You have a lot of thoughts on the table here.

First, as regards that nice body of hers. To me, it seems simply that we think sometimes of our body as something we possess. Hence, we say my body or this body of mine, or , as in your example, that nice body of hers.

Secondly, you are asking about sentences like that beautiful picture of my mother of my father's? In my opinion, a native speaker would instinctively avoid the awkwardness of this kind of thing, and say it in another way, eg
that beautiful picture that my father has of my mother or perhaps my father's beautiful picture of my mother.

Clive

Regards

paco2004

#153774 Tue, 01 Nov 05 04:44 AM

(quote user="Clive") That beautiful picture that my father has of my mother (/quote)

Hello Clive

I see! You say that way! It's new to me. I'll remember it. Thank you.

paco

paco2004

J4mes_bond25

#153839 Tue, 01 Nov 05 11:07 AM

Clive wrote:
Hi again,

I'm waiting for Clive's reply or I got your reply. I'm waiting for Clive's. Sure, that's the normal way of speaking.

I'm waiting for the reply of Clive Also OK, but rather more formal.

He's not your teacher, he's our. No, it's not grammatical.

.... he's ours. Fine. Must be a good teacher, if two classes are fighting over him!

How about if I say the same to a blonde bombshell wearing a deep V-neck top over a ruffled skirt ?? Well, much depends on: A. Your gender. B. The bombshell's gender. C. Whether the bombshell is attracted to people on the basis of their grammar.

Best wishes, Clive

Interesting grammatical aspect that you made me aware of, Thanks.

So, based on that logic, I presume it would be perfectly acceptable saying "can I see a snap of you" ???

My gender would be the member of physically sturdy sex (course, with few exceptions, since I was told women could go WILDER THAN A WILD BEAST, in certain situation, at certain location & with certain individual Wink [;)]