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Me going to a strip club can ruin my social image.

My going to a strip club can ruin my social image.

Well I guess that isn't actually the case. I think using possessive or pronoun actually depends on the sentence itself . For example I want to see you smiling ... I want to see your smiling. This doesnt make sense. However i want to see your smiling face does. Similarly I want to hear you singing (here in possessive it means I want to hear you while singing) . I want to hear your singing (here singing is a noun). So they both are right. But have different meanings

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    Your two "strip" examples are fine (note "strip club", not "stripping club"), the latter with "my" being a tad more formal. "Me" and "my" are both pronouns, the latter being genitive case. "I want to see you smiling" is fine, but not "your smiling" since there is no noun "smiling" in this context. "I want to hear you singing" is fine too. "I want to hear your singing" has a different meaning; "singing" is a noun, and it could mean you want to listen to the person's voice on a recording like a record or CD.
    – BillJ
    Commented Aug 25, 2017 at 6:07
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    You're expected to edit your previous question (not delete it) to explain why the duplicate answer was inadequate and request additional information from respondents.
    – Em.
    Commented Aug 25, 2017 at 7:22

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My going to the ...

The subject in that sentence is the gerund “going”. It is described with the adverbial phrase “to the strip club” and by the possessive “My”.

Potentially you could use the rather formal sounding sentence “I, going to a strip club, can ruin my social image.” but in this case it is “I” rather the act of going that is doing the ruining. You can’t use the objective from “Me” as the subject.

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  • That's what i was thinking i can't obviously use me here. Right?
    – user55625
    Commented Aug 25, 2017 at 14:26
  • @user236989 No, the subject is the clause "Me/my going to a strip club".
    – BillJ
    Commented Aug 26, 2017 at 5:08
  • ???? Could you please explain
    – user55625
    Commented Aug 26, 2017 at 14:30
  • The subject of the sentence is “[Me|My] going to strip clubs”. It is the act of going that can ruin my social reputation. We use the gerund (a verb-used-as-noun) form “going” and we describe it with the possessive “my”. I you really want to use “me” as the subject, you’ll need to use the subjective pronoun “I”. @user236989, could you be more specific about what you don't understand?
    – smatterer
    Commented Aug 27, 2017 at 21:01
  • What did billJ say? I couldnt understand
    – user55625
    Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 17:17

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