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I would like to make a sentence like "my that book". For example, if my friend asks me that he wants to take my (that) book and I want to tell him that he can take it. How do I say?

  1. My that book?
  2. That book of mine?

Now I would like to tell him that he can take that book of mine. We cannot use two adjacent determiners so I cannot say "my that book". But how do I use "that" and "my" in the same sentence?

  1. You can take that book of mine?
  2. You can take my that book?

Sentences number 1 and 4 are not possible because they use adjacent determiners. Do the other sentences sound idiomatic?

In short, if I want to use "that" (for indication) and "my" (for possession), how do I tell my friend that he can take my book?

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  • If your friend has asked your permission, he knows the book he wants is yours. All you need to ask is "That one?"
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Aug 27, 2020 at 7:53

3 Answers 3

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I think in many cases we'd use the.

If we were referring to it immediately after the other person had asked for it, then saying "it" makes sense, as another answer suggested.

But say that you requested it earlier in the conversion, or when we last met, and as you're about to leave, I want to give it to you. I might say "Here's the book" or "Here's the book you wanted".

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I think that the only valid expression is

that book of mine

But it's not idiomatic in the context that you have described. It sounds odd.

Notice that your friend have already stated which book he/she desire (indication) and that it belongs to you (possession). There's no need for you to repeat those traits again in your answer.

-- Can you lend me your Bible, please?
-- Yes, of course, take it.

"Your Bible" - where "Bible" can be replaced by any other title that you own - is already pointing that the book is yours and which one of your books he/she wants.

I have also highlighted the pronoun it. That word represents what you're looking for: "that book of mine". It's a bit redundant and verbose if you reply: "Yes, you can take that book of mine".

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If the book is obvious, you just say you can take my book, and it will mean that one. Otherwise you may need something like You can take my copy of that book.

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