

Sign up
Here's how it works:
  1. Anybody can ask a question
  2. Anybody can answer

Jane told Marcos that in spite of (him/his) being small, he would definitely be a great asset to the team because of his athletic abilities.

In the above sentence, which of him/his is correct and why ?

share|improve this question

Both are grammatical, but each has a slightly different emphasis. The personal pronoun (him) foregrounds the fact that it was he, rather than anyone else, who was small. The possessive determiner (his) foregrounds the state of being small.

share|improve this answer

Either would be accepted in most casual speech, but "his" is more formally correct. "Being small" is a property he has, so is most properly attributed to him using a possessive.

The form using "him" is somewhat broken because it's using an objective pronoun in a subject-like capacity.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer


