GENITIVE / ACCUSATIVE CASE (GERUNDS/-ING PARTICIPLES

GENITIVE / ACCUSATIVE CASE  

(without) me having to vs (without) my having to ???

There is one respect in which ‘gerund’ and ‘present participle’ clauses differ in their internal form: with ‘gerunds’ the subject may take genitive case, with plain or accusative case a less formal alternant, but with ‘present participles’ the genitive is impossible and pronouns with a nominative–accusative contrast appear in nominative case, with accusative an alternant restricted to informal style. Compare then:
[39] i. She resented his/him/*he being invited to open the debate.
       ii. We appointed Max, he/him/*his being much the best qualified of the candidates.

A project like 'Rizzoli & Isles' is something you can't pursue. It's something that comes to you... I like to call it 'fairy dust.' And it happened without my having to do anything.

It's touching and almost understandable that we should expect our partner to understand us without us having to explain what's up / what's going on

It gives me confidence to know that what I'm writing has a veracity of its own without me having to invent it. When I'm writing fiction, I must believe it to be true, or I can see no point in it.


Object pronoun with present participle (informal) 
possessive pronoun with gerund (formal)

Gerunds and personal pronouns
Gerunds are nouns ending in -ing that are made out of verbs.

Fasting is good for you.
I like your cooking.

When it comes to the possessive, you need to distinguish between gerunds and -ing participles. When a gerund is used possessively, it needs an apostrophe.

Tania’s singing scared the children. (gerund)
The children never wanted to hear Tania singing again. (-ing participle)

The pronoun usage is more troublesome. Which sentences would you use?

She resents you being more successful.
She resents your being more successful.

I didn’t like him going without me.
I didn’t like his going without me.

In both examples, the second sentences are more grammatically correct, but I think many people would use the first sentences, especially in informal language.

However, you must use a possessive pronoun when the gerund is the subject:

My handwriting is poor.

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. . . .”

This is a subtle point, and hard to explain without using the sort of technical language I usually try to avoid; but if you can learn how to precede gerunds with possessive pronouns, your writing will definitely improve in the eyes of many readers.

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. . . .” Other examples of standard usage: “Their coming to my birthday party was a nice surprise.” “I didn’t like his being rude to his teacher.” “They weeded the garden without our having to tell them to.” “Coming,” “being,” and “having” are all gerunds, and require preceding possessive pronouns (“their,” “his,” and “our”). If a person’s name appears just before the gerund, that too needs to be in the possessive form: “We’re excited about Bob’s winning the tournament.”

Not all verb forms ending in “-ing” are gerunds. Some are present participles, and function as adjectives: “a sailing ship,” “a running joke,” “aching back.” These can be preceded by possessive pronouns (“my aching back”), but few people are tempted to use a non-possessive pronoun in this context except in certain dialects (“me aching back”).

Confused? Try this simple rule of thumb: if you have to put a pronoun or noun in front of an “-ing” word, try a possessive one first. If the “-ing” word seems like a thing or an action that could be possessed, it’s probably a gerund. If using a possessive form makes sense, go with it.

* It's sad and almost understandable how we should expect our partners to understand us without us having to explain what's up