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Consider the following :

  1. A friend of him came here yesterday.

  2. A friend of his came here yesterday.

My question is which one is acceptable. If both are acceptable, do they have any difference in meaning.

Hope somebody knowledgable could help ...

Stanley
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  • Now, we have ELL up and running for questions as these. ell.stackexchange.com – Kris Apr 17 '13 at 05:56
  • The construction is idiomatic English, the double genitive: a friend of Jim's or a friend of his. See also: http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar/nouns18.html – Kris Apr 17 '13 at 05:59

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Only "A friend of his came here yesterday" is acceptable. The other one is grammatically incorrect, and not even illiterate native Anglophones would use it.

  • "Although in use since Chaucer’s time or before, the double genitive attracted the attention of 18th century grammarians; their disapproval did nothing to stamp it out." (http://www.dailywritingtips.com/a-friend-of-jims/) What is "grammatically incorrect?" – Kris Apr 17 '13 at 06:06
  • @Kris: We don't use Chaucerian English these days. You may, but then you'd be an outlier & not worth listening to because then everything you said would be incomprehensible. I've oft contended here, hundreds of times, that native speakers will say anything & claim that it's correct simply because that's what they say (ergo, it must be right), or say that because dear Jane Austen once used the structure, it's perfectly normal contemporary English. I disavow such absurd twit-speak. Some speakers of what society calls substandard dialects may say it, but that doesn't make it "correct". –  Apr 17 '13 at 06:15
  • Perhaps. What is "grammatically incorrect?" – Kris Apr 17 '13 at 07:02
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    @Kris: The form "a friend of him" is ungrammatical. We do say things "You've been a good friend to me/to him/to her/to them" & "You've been a good friend of mine/of his/of hers/theirs", but not "He's a friend of me" or "He's been a good friend of me/of him/of her/of them". Did you not notice the spelling difference? –  Apr 17 '13 at 07:15
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    Why was this answer downvoted? I've never heard an English-speaker say "NOUN PHRASE... of him" in this way. It might be a stretch to call it grammatically incorrect (though his/hers are at least possessive pronouns and him/her are not), but "A friend of me/him/her" is certainly not idiomatic in any English-speaking area where I've been. – njd Apr 17 '13 at 09:15
  • @Kris the thing you link to specifically says that of his is acceptable. Nowhere does it mention of him. – Matt E. Эллен Apr 17 '13 at 10:07
  • @MattЭллен cf. "It might be a stretch to call it grammatically incorrect" (comment by njd above) -- it is not incorrect. I said the same. Where has it been prescribed that it is grammatically incorrect? – Kris Apr 17 '13 at 11:06
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    @Kris It’s incorrect because it is something a native speaker would not and could not and should not generate. Just ask one. – tchrist Apr 17 '13 at 12:41
  • @Kris: If you believe that it's grammatically correct, please provide some evidence. Even if you find a source that says it's grammatically correct -- I doubt that you will, but I'm not omniscient -- grammar is trumped by idiomaticity: it's not idiomatic English & would never be used by a native Anglophone. Grammar is only one possible criterion for deciding what is acceptable & correct. It's not the be-all and end-all. –  Apr 17 '13 at 13:32