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I'm a bit stuck here. Since your and my are followed by a noun and yours and mine are not, the following sentences should be:

  • I'm standing between your and my car.

But this seems really wrong. Yet, with yours and mine it reads better but it's wrong too:

  • I'm standing between yours and mine car.

I know that we can say:

  • I'm standing between my car and yours (or "your car and mine")

But I'd like it to be like this sentence:

  • There are his and her clothes in the wardrobe.

Edit: With his and her i can see two meanings:

  1. Clothes that belong to him and her alike.
  2. Clothes that belong to him and clothes that belong to her.
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    what's wrong with the first variant? it's just ellipsis. Aug 28, 2017 at 17:00
  • @MvLog I'm not sure if it's correct. It sound odd and really unnatural to me. Aug 28, 2017 at 17:03
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    I think sentences such as the one you would "like it to be" are avoided by native speakers in favor of other constructions. The wardrobe contains clothing of his and clothing of hers. The both of them have clothes in the wardrobe. The wardrobe contains clothing of the both of them. The wardrobe contains clothing of hers and clothing of her sister.
    – TimR
    Aug 28, 2017 at 20:52
  • There's nothing wrong with 'your and my car', but it's uncommon English. The 'commoner' English would be 'our car'. Aug 29, 2017 at 0:11
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    @SovereignSun In that case, you would say 'your and my cars' as explained by smatterer below. Aug 29, 2017 at 6:49

1 Answer 1

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You could say: “I'm standing between your and my cars.” Note that there are two cars. “Your and my car” means it is one shared car.

It probably sounds better to say “I'm standing between your car and mine.”

You are right that “There are his and her clothes in the wardrobe.” is ambiguous and it also sounds awkward. A better alternative would be: “There are his clothes and hers in the wardrobe.”

Note that the English idiom “his and hers” refers to matching male and female items.

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