“Why is the whole world worked up about my getting married? I’m having a great time and I want to enjoy it.” - Gisele Bündchen
Gisele has correctly used a possessive pronoun with a gerund. In the first sentence, she has paired the first person possessive pronoun “my” with the gerund phrase “getting married.”
A gerund is a verb ending in “-ing” that functions as a noun. When a pronoun precedes a gerund, it should be in a possessive form. A common error is the use of an objective pronoun before a gerund. Gisele did not make the mistake of saying “me getting married.” Nicely done, Gisele!
Remember that gerunds are nouns, so “getting married” is a thing. Replace “getting married” with a different noun to see the logic behind using a possessive pronoun with the gerund phrase.
- Why is the whole world worked up about my hair? [This makes sense.]
- Why is the whole world worked up about me hair? [This does not make sense.]
Just as “hair” is a noun, so is “getting married.”
2 Comments
Using celebrity quotes to teach grammar … bizarre, but also quite nifty!
She would have been fine using the personal (non-possessive) pronoun “me” in this instance. It all depends on what needs to be emphasized—the act of getting married (use “my”) or the person doing it (use “me). In Gisele’s case, it’s the former.
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