A gerund is a verb, ending in -ing, used as a noun.
For example,
"Playing the clarinet is fun." Playing is the noun in that sentence.
"I enjoy eating peanut butter." Eating is the primary object noun in that sentence.
"Mouth-breathing and close talking are obnoxious." Mouth-breathing and talking are the nouns in that sentence.
Therefore, when you modify the sentence with the person doing it, you have to use the possessive, as in,
"His playing the clarinet is fun for him!" or
"My eating peanut butter makes me very happy," or
"Your mouth-breathing and close talking make me
want to both hold your lips closed and
run away with equal fervency."
Most people, however, string their nouns together willy nilly.
"You mouth breathing is annoying." ALL KINDS OF NOUNS
"Him playing the violin is loud." WHAT THE HELL IS HIM PLAYING? What sort of playing is "him"? I hope it's nice, since it's so loud.
So when someone very kindly says, "I appreciate you noticing," that's like saying, "I like you essay," or "You late arrival is annoying."
You might say to me, "Thank you, Katherine. I appreciate you teaching me about gerunds."
And here I would imagine the little stick with the apple on the end that all my elementary school teachers had for some reason, and I would imagine whacking you with it.
You appreciate MY teaching you about gerunds.
The teaching is mine.
1 comment:
I like seeing our conversations in picture form :-).
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