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I was wondering about the grammar of sentences like this:

  • They decided on him going to Japan and her going to China.

Or should it be like this?

  • They decided on he going to Japan and she going to China.

I'm a little confused as to whether "him/her" can be used as what appears to be the subject in the latter clauses. To me the former sentence sounds more natural though I don't know if it's actually more common in normal, spoken speech.

  • It should be him or his, never he. (But you're modifying multiple parts of the sentence at once, making it impossible to come up with a clear answer.) – Jason Bassford Jun 27 '20 at 15:17
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    Non-finite gerund-participial clauses take accusative case subject pronouns -- as in your first example -- but not nominative case as in your second example. They can also take genitive case pronouns, as in "They decided on his going to Japan and her going to China". – BillJ Jun 27 '20 at 15:20

2 Answers2

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In a comment, BillJ wrote:

Non-finite gerund-participial clauses take accusative case subject pronouns -- as in your first example -- but not nominative case as in your second example. They can also take genitive case pronouns, as in "They decided on his going to Japan and her going to China".

Exceptionally, when the gerund-participial clause functions as an adjunct, nominative case is possible as well as accusative case:

"She sought advice from Ed, [he/him being the most experienced of her colleagues]."

BillJ
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tchrist
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In a comment, Jason Bassford wrote:

It should be him or his, never he. (But you're modifying multiple parts of the sentence at once, making it impossible to come up with a clear answer.)

tchrist
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