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I just received an email that had the following sentence,

We have plenty of magic that will pique your and your customers' interest.

Aside from the obvious errors, do we use "you" "yours" or "your"?

EDIT
The original sentence, verbatim:

"We have plenty of magic that will peak your & your customers interest."

tchrist
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michael_timofeev
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    "Your interest & your customers' interests", (I'm assuming you have multiple customers) may indeed be shortened to "Your & your customers' interests".. was that your question? – Born2Smile Sep 02 '15 at 17:12
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    It might depend on how closely *you* and *your customers* are associated (or more exactly, the extent to which your interest and theirs are "the same"). With a married couple (or just any couple, in fact) it would certainly be okay to refer to *John and Jane's [wedding, house, whatever]. Personally I don't see anything particularly odd about using you* in OP's context. – FumbleFingers Sep 02 '15 at 17:34
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    @FumbleFingers, indeed you and your may be equally valid if said interests belong to both. – Born2Smile Sep 02 '15 at 17:56
  • @FF With a situation where the noun is mass but obviously not necessarily common to both sets of people, isn't it better to use a couple of interest's? Or 'that will pique your interest and that of your customers'? – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '15 at 19:04
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    @Edwin: In this context I think it would be perverse to suppose that *your* interest and the interest of your customers would be significantly different things. And even if I consider a context where they clearly are different (and hence liable to be pluralised), I have to say I don't much like It is in your* and your customers' interests to adopt the new payment system*. It sounds "fussy, precious" to me. – FumbleFingers Sep 02 '15 at 20:10
  • What are you considering "obvious errors"? – JEL Sep 02 '15 at 21:28
  • @FF A couple of interest's is "We have plenty of magic that will pique your interest and your customers' interest." I'm not suggesting the plural form (note where the italics ended, as per Truss). Like you, I'm not happy with 'interests' after 'in'. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '15 at 22:00
  • @FumbleFingers you changed the original sentence in your edit, thereby changing the nature of my question and the intention of the person who wrote the email. – michael_timofeev Sep 03 '15 at 00:52
  • @JEL see my edit to my question. I have added the original sentence back. Fumble "corrected" the sentence changing the nature of my question and the original writer's intentions, which I feel are important. – michael_timofeev Sep 03 '15 at 00:56
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    This issue has already been discussed in many places on this site; see the following question and the questions linked to it for a place to start: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4226/my-wife-and-is-seafood-collaboration-dinner?lq=1, http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/linked/4226?lq=1 – herisson Sep 03 '15 at 01:16
  • @sumelic it may be a duplicate but trying to wade through the maze of repostings, closed questions, and redirections to close-but-not-quite-the-same questions has not helped answer the question. – michael_timofeev Sep 03 '15 at 01:40
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    @michael_timofeev: yes, the linked questions are a mess, but a mess that needs to be cleaned up sometime. Putting it off will just add one more room (this question) to that maze. If you haven't found any good answers yet, I'll try to look through them myself to see if any say what I would. – herisson Sep 03 '15 at 01:43
  • @sumelic thanks. I'm not lazy just can't judge which answers are correct and which are just the usual noise. I looked on the Internet for info about "yours" and found that it could either be "your" or "yours" depending on customer or interest. I don't know, which is why I'm looking for input. – michael_timofeev Sep 03 '15 at 01:59
  • OK, I found what appears to be the answer (use "your"). Unfortunately, it's only supported by the dubious authority of Wikipedia :(, but it nevertheless appears to be correct: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11849/nikkis-and-alices-x-vs-nikki-and-alices-x/11852#11852. I also made a meta post about this overall issue: http://meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/7109/can-we-switch-to-a-better-canonical-question-about-using-pronouns-in-compound-po – herisson Sep 03 '15 at 03:25
  • @sumelic so the email writer has it right, "...your and your customers."? He didn't have an apostrophe on customer, though. Btw, I checked the link you gave for Giovanni and Wikipedia...thank you. It seems that Giovanni and Walker is like a "big noun" and gets an apostrophe at the end. – michael_timofeev Sep 03 '15 at 04:44
  • michael, there has to be an apostrophe. Since you didn't respond to @Born2Smile's initial comment I assumed the same as him (that you have more than one customer). Unless the original writer's intention was to make sure you realised that he doesn't know how to write English properly, I don't see what you're getting at. – FumbleFingers Sep 03 '15 at 11:55
  • michael_timofeev, indeed @FumbleFingers is right: There has to be an apostrophe. The question is only on which side of the 's' it goes. If there are more than one customer, it should be where I put it. If the matter relates to only a single customer, it goes before the 's': "your and your customer's". The apostrophe must be in place regardless of whether you use you or your – Born2Smile Sep 03 '15 at 17:16
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    possible duplicate of Possessive-S/apostrophe in a list, including the first and second person Also Use of the possessive apostrophe in a list, which is less concerned with possessive pronouns. – FumbleFingers Sep 03 '15 at 17:24

3 Answers3

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Another possibility is to say ". . . both your and your customers' interest."

Gary Clay Rector
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There is not one correct answer, any of the solutions below are acceptable but the OP might be persuaded by the number of hits Google reports.

Google News has 114 results for your and your children's

  1. "Of the things he says that are wrong this is the most direct threat to your and your children's health."

  2. Contact your legislative and congressional representatives and encourage them to support your and your children's right to privacy and push ...

For you and your children's Google News reports 323 hits

  1. Grab your coat, hat and gloves, bundle up and head outside! Outdoor play is good for you and your children's health and physical development ...

  2. How many babies born last year share you and your children's names?

Google reports 11,500 hits for your name and your partner's name

  1. The account can be in your name and your partner’s name.

  2. Simply enter the name of your team, your name, and your partner's name and you're all set!

51,600 hits for your and your partner's

  1. This thinking reinforces the establishment of a great deal of inaccurate thinking regarding the quality of your and your partner's ideas and choices.
  2. SimpleTax is designed to automatically maximize your and your partner's combined refunds.

and 339,000 hits for you and your partner's

  1. Complete you and your partner's taxable income details
  2. If you and your partner's interests are poles apart, you need to ask yourself whether you are willing to do the things you enjoy alone or with other friends.

Google seems to suggests that “you and your customers' interest” (if both parties have the same interest in common) or “interests” is the preferred solution.

It avoids repeating the possessive adjective your twice in the same sentence, and if the noun that follows you and your is plural, it is unlikely a reader will interpret joint ownership of the thing in possession. Compare:

  • You / your and your partner's name = suggests that the couple might share the same name.
  • You and your partner's names = suggests at least two names per person

  • You and your children's names = no ambiguity

  • Your name and your partner's name = unequivocal but repetitive. Possibly the ideal solution for government documents, tax forms etc.

In conclusion, if one is looking for a perfectly grammatical sentence and one which expresses clearly its meaning, then I suggest the following solution:

We have plenty of magic that will pique your interest and your customers' interest.

If one is looking for the most harmonious solution, without changing the word order or any of the terms being used then this is perfectly acceptable:

We have plenty of magic that will pique you and your customers' interest.

Mari-Lou A
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  • Mari-Lou, thank you for answering. I really don't know what to think anymore on this one. When I say "you and your customers' interest." aloud it sounds right, however I can picture myself standing in front of two people and saying "your" to one person and then turning to another and saying "your interest." I'm going to go with your answer. – michael_timofeev Sep 05 '15 at 11:18
  • ok. Thanks for spending the time to address this. – michael_timofeev Sep 05 '15 at 11:31
  • I think the "You and your [noun + possessive apostrophe]" construction is a way of saying these people are indivisible, they go together. After all we do say: "You and your partner" and "You and your friends / children / family" Perhaps that's why e.g. "You and your customers' needs" sounds acceptable. – Mari-Lou A Sep 05 '15 at 11:50
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As the interest is possessed by both the reader and their customer I would suggest:

We have plenty of magic that will pique yours and your customers' interest.

Though for comprehension and asthetics I would reformat the text as

We have plenty of magic that will pique the interest of you and your customers'.

user136332
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  • "the interest of you" does not sound good to me at all. Also, wouldn't "yours and your customer's interest" indicate disjoint rather than joint possession, and require the use of a plural "interests"? That's what the following answer seems to be saying if I'm interpreting it right: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/55722/your-and-my-something-vs-yours-and-my – herisson Sep 03 '15 at 03:30
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    I don't think you need an apostrophe after customers in your second suggested wording, since the phrase "the interest of you and your customers" is structured so as to imply "the interest of you and the interest of your customers"—and "the interest of your customers" doesn't take an apostrophe. – Sven Yargs Sep 03 '15 at 09:04