Which of the following is correct?
In the case of "their" being granted a bond the deal will go through.
or:
In the case of "them" being granted a bond the deal will go through.
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1Their is the proper form; them is more common in colloquial settings. – Anonym Jun 29 '14 at 16:08
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@Anonym “Proper” is a meaningless term that positively drips with prescriptive and possibly even punitive hoity-toityism. On both sides of the Atlantic, the spoken language has a relatively low rate of genitive pronouns in the PRONOUN + VBG construction, while the written language varies (by time and genre) from nearly all oblique (or "accusative") pronouns, through various mixtures of genitive and oblique, down to values in the same range as some spoken collections. – tchrist Jun 29 '14 at 16:27
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@tchrist Well, if you want it spelled out, their is the form that most traditional grammars will recommend. If I were being hoity-toity, I would simply say 'their is correct' and leave it at that. – Anonym Jun 29 '14 at 17:25
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"them" is correct. That is because the verb "granted" requires an object. "their" is a possessive, and cannot be used as an object.
It can be a bit confusing because "grant" can be both a verb and a noun. This kind of thing even catches people all the time. "their" would be OK in the following sentence: "In the case of their receipt of a grant of a bond, the deal will go through."
Matt Campbell
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1The object of the verb "granted" is "a bond," not either "them" or "their," and so your stated reason for preferring "them" is quite irrelevant. The possessive choice here is perfectly proper; the only real question is whether it is too proper, too formal, for the intended context and register. – Brian Donovan Jun 29 '14 at 16:20