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Sep 2016
8:36pm, 17 Sep 2016
6,957 posts
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GordonG
but presumably a group of people with the name Several would be several Severals?
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Sep 2016
9:02pm, 17 Sep 2016
11,265 posts
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Columba
Yes.
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Sep 2016
9:03pm, 17 Sep 2016
12,154 posts
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RichHL
More Severals would become many Severals. Several fewer Severals were some to go away again.
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Sep 2016
7:18pm, 27 Sep 2016
13,838 posts
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ChrisHB
An automated announcement on a train last week said "We look forward to you travelling with us again." I was taught to say "your travelling" in this case, though I don't, and usually avoid that construction altogether.
Was that ever normal English or is it something else falsely acquired from Latin?
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Sep 2016
9:10pm, 27 Sep 2016
11,354 posts
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Columba
I was taught the same, Chris.
It makes sense. The train crew is not looking forward to you. It is looking forward to the situation *Chris is travelling*
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Sep 2016
9:25pm, 27 Sep 2016
13,839 posts
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ChrisHB
I understand why you might think it's correct. Travelling is a noun and a possessive is the correct part of speech to put in front of it.
But why shouldn't "you travelling" be a noun phrase? If "you travelling" is natural English, then it's up to the scholars to describe it, not to change it.
Which form do you use?
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Sep 2016
10:51pm, 27 Sep 2016
4,386 posts
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sallykate
Maybe though they are looking forward to you rather than your travelling?
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Sep 2016
10:59pm, 27 Sep 2016
12,229 posts
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Dvorak
My school did not teach us a correct form for this situation. It seems a rather odd thing to cover. This may be a reflection on the cost of our educations at the point of access ;-).
Either form could be correct, I feel. The happy anticipation of either the act of your travelling or you as a person travelling.
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Sep 2016
11:21pm, 27 Sep 2016
4,387 posts
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sallykate
So I get that I would say, "My posting here has caused issues" rather than "me posting here". But to use that in the announcement cited doesn't sound quite right. Just as it wouldn't feel quite right if someone said to me, "I like your posting here."
When I am retired I might just have to do a proper course in all this stuff.
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Sep 2016
5:59pm, 28 Sep 2016
11,355 posts
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Columba
I don't remember being taught this in school either; but my parents (grammar pedants both) regularly "corrected" me if I used the "wrong" form.
Sallykate, both your examples sound right to me! It was all that pedantry in my upbringing.
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Discovering you've been pronouncing a word wrong all your life
Jul 2024