By American English, Possessives

Hi Zhuricki No, the rules haven't changed and there is no difference between British and American English here. 'In search of' is a special idiomatic phrase and means the same thing as 'looking for' or 'seeking'. As is normally the case with idioms, 'in search of' is a fixed grouping of...

Kooyeen, If you want to know how that idea is expressed in real spoken American English, here's how: They are almost always reworded to avoid a possessive adjective (my, your, etc.) joined to another noun by and. Because of this, the 'problem' you pose is almost entirely...

Believer wrote:Thank you. There was a typo. Aside from that, why do you think Marius and the reference source seem have noted the phrase "a friend of my uncle's" and not "a friend of my uncle" as the only possible correct phrase? I must note that the phrase in the original post "a friend's my...

Thanks, All. First, I am a native English speaker (from California, but now living in London). Second, in "We watched him cooking the dinner," "him" is clearly the intended object of "watched," and "cooking the dinner" is a participial phrase modifying "him." That is, "cooking" is not used...

Thanks. I hadn't thought of checking the OED on a grammatical point. As I don't have the Chicago Manual of Style or any similar American reference work near to hand, I did a quick Internet search ("Chicago Manual of Style" + gerund + possessive) to see if I could find anything citing the...

The choice between the possessive and the direct object forms is difficult in the context you present. It appears to be dependent on the preceding verb or adjective. Sometimes native speakers use a form different from the one recommended in grammar books. In most cases the possessive is...