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I'm looking for the rules concerning when you use possessive pronouns combined with a verb of "-ing" form. What's the combination called and how does it work?
Examples:
Can you also say this?
It's called gerunds. Gerunds are derived from verbs and serve as nouns. Since they serve as a noun, they need possessive case of nouns to modify them. That's the reason, your latter examples sound ungrammatical.
I object to his (possessive) going
and not...
I object to him (not possessive) going
A good reference from Washington State University's page
Verb forms ending in “-ing” can function as nouns and are sometimes preceded by pronouns. Such verb/noun forms are called “gerunds.” You’ll often see sentences like this:
“I didn’t appreciate him returning the car with the gas tank empty.”
But “returning” is a gerund, so it should be preceded by a possessive pronoun:
“I didn’t appreciate his returning the car. . . .”
Good question :)
