I am thanking 2 people for their help. Do I say
- Yours and Dericks support
or - Derrick and your support
Which is correct?
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Mari-Lou A
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Karen Brown
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Does this answer your question? What is the grammatically correct way of attributing possession to "her and others’ lives"? Or My and Linda's or Mine and Linda's?? Or Me and Joey's or mine and Joey's?? – Edwin Ashworth Aug 26 '23 at 10:45
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Essentially, the possessive determiner (appearing before the noun support) must be your not yours (though Derick's support and yours works for non-combined support; here, yours is a pronoun). The possessive structure (Derrick's) is needed if the support is seen as individual rather than combined. // The order is optional (Your and Derick's support / Derick's and your support. // John and Derick's support would be used for 'joint possession treated as combined rather than individual', but I don't find Derrick and your support very natural. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 26 '23 at 11:01
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See Nikki's and Alice's cars vs Nikki and Alice's cars for discussion of "segregatory" (or "distributive") possession vs "combinatorial" (or "joint") (co-owned) possession, including the acceptability of "you and your wife's bank account"). – Edwin Ashworth Aug 26 '23 at 11:19
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@EdwinAshworth I don't think the question with two proper nouns (Nikki and Alice) is very relevant to the OP's situation. They cannot switch "your/s" with the actual name of the person, the thank you is directed to a friend (you) and presumably a second friend, or to their partner or husband. The OP could say “I want to thank *you and Derrick* for all your support” but the question wasn't about rephrasing. Aimè there are many ways to skin a cat, so they say. – Mari-Lou A Aug 26 '23 at 11:34
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@Mari-Lou A The answer given by gpr is. And the useful extension is in line with the spirit of ELU: well-collated reasonably easily searched information about reasonably scoped topics. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 26 '23 at 12:01
1 Answers
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REVISION
I had originally suggested that "Yours and Derrick's support" was acceptable, and I still think it is, especially in speech but a commentator corrected me
... Yours support? "Derrick's support and yours" is fine, where 'yours' following Derrick's support is acceptable for 'your support'
So it's my time to eat humble pie; for formal situations and in writing "Your support and Derrick's“ is grammatically correct.
Amended
It's either "Your support and Derrick's” OR "Derrick's and your support”
In which order you place these terms is personal preference; it does not depend on grammar.
But don't forget the possessive apostrophe in Derrick's to show ownership. The possessive determiner your already implies ownership.
Mari-Lou A
- 91,183
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@EdwinAshworth "Yours support" is clearly unacceptable, where did I suggest it wasn't? Humbug, it's English, people say these things all the time. The orthographical error lies in the missing apostrophe. – Mari-Lou A Aug 26 '23 at 10:51
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@EdwinAshworth Well it could also be "Yours and Derrick's" adding "support" clarifies what is being discussed but I have amended my answer. Hope that appeases your sense of propriety. – Mari-Lou A Aug 26 '23 at 11:07