"I cannot account for my (be) so talkative. It's just my character"

Question

I cannot account for my (be) so talkative. It's just my character.

What form of verb "be" should be used in this sentence? I can't come up with anything.

stangdon · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-23 16:59:23Z

2

The correct form is the gerund, being. We "account for" a noun phrase, and the gerund is how you make a noun form out of a verb.

For example,

I cannot account for my being misled

In view of these facts I deem it my duty to ... account for my being out of the ship

Or any other verb:

That will account for my doing all the talking

That may account for my saying what I did

answered Feb 23, 2021 at 16:59

stangdon

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1

Simple Present Continuous (my being so talkative) can be used to apologise for both a general character trait AND a recent episode of "talkativeness", but the Perfect form (my having been so talkative) specifically carries only the second of those senses. And of course many people would use the simple pronoun rather than the possessive in such contexts (me being / having been so talkative) - which I think is only ever a stylistic choice, with no special implications for the meaning.
– FumbleFingers
Feb 23, 2021 at 18:41

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