0

Her coming home was unprecedented?

Do all verbs have gerunds like "coming" in the sentence above?

  • 2
    Yes, and yes. Formally her is possessive, and the corresponding form with he would be his coming home. But many people today don't use the possessive in this construction, and would say him coming home. Of course, with "her", there is no difference. – Colin Fine Aug 31 '18 at 15:07
  • @ColinFine Many will argue that "him" is used rather than "his" because the standard of English is not what it once was. GCSE does not begin to compare with the old GCE O Level. At least that is what my former colleague who reads the Daily Telegraph thinks. – WS2 Aug 31 '18 at 15:17
  • 3
    Either one can be used, and both have been used for centuries. Gerunds just can't have nominative subjects, that's all. Though there are verbs (notably modal auxiliary verbs) that don't have gerunds -- there is no gerund verb form musting or coulding from must or could, for instance. The really interesting thing about the -ing suffix is that it's totally regular when it occurs: it's always infinitive + -ing, no exceptions, not even for be (regular form being). – John Lawler Aug 31 '18 at 15:23
  • @JohnLawler: Might this somewhat quirky book title be the *only* "semi-acceptable" exception in the entire lexicon? *Doing and Don'ting - A Workbook in Moral Identity.* – FumbleFingers Aug 31 '18 at 15:33
  • 1
    Words can always be quoted and reified, and when that happens you start over and apply normal regularities. Like English cooking but not *New English cooking. – John Lawler Aug 31 '18 at 15:35

1 Answers1

2

Yes. "Coming home" is a gerund phrase, which acts as a noun, and it belongs to "her". It is a somewhat uncommon or old-fashioned construction though, at least where I am from.

You could do this with pretty much any verb. "His running away was unexpected", "Its running aground was inevitable" etc.

Michael Ferguson
  • 176