Grammar

Congo

Suggest improvements for the highlighted problem area: Panga and me took some tourists on a singing tour of the Congo. I steered the boat while Panga strummed on his guitar and watched for crocodiles. At Malebo Pool our tourists reacted with frightened grimaces to me singing. They asked Panga and I to humor them with a non-musical tour. We obliged them until we came upon some rough rapids. Here, several of the tourists were surprised when they heard my singing a solo. But they were too worried by the approaching cataracts to complain. Answer: - Pronoun Case: Gerunds - A tricky rule of pronoun case should be followed for gerunds, which are nouns that were created by adding -ing to the end of a verb. Let us move straight to an example in our opening paragraph: At Malebo Pool our tourists reacted with frightened grimaces to me singing. The gerund, singing, is a noun and is the object of the preposition to. In this prepositional phrase, the pronoun modifies that gerund; it is not the object of a verb or a preposition. Here we should use the possessive case: At Malebo Pool our tourists reacted with frightened grimaces to my singing. Therefore, in general, the possessive case should be used for a pronoun that immediately precedes a gerund. More examples follow: She objected to him begging for attention. She objected to his begging for attention. I have confidence in us winning the race. I have confidence in our winning the race. Panga consented to them rowing his boat. Panga consented to their rowing his boat.

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