This is going to be hard because of his need to be there very early (Patching from the end) I want him/her to look good through it soon).
When does a gerund need a possessive
- adjective? How does
- a gerund phrase relate to a young
person?
I would have written
this. This is going to be hard because of his needing to be there very early.
What are some ways of telling the same sentence similar to a sentence? Is there a sense in which one is more correct than the other or do they simply have subtly different meanings?
What should I do if I did not tell people that I have been wrong?
In English language, only formal subjects can be spoken. Gerunds are to be “possed” by their doers. Using second hand, in American English., the former sentence is said while the second tends to sound “stuffy” and “stilted”. I think that the first sentence is much more natural than the second.
Since you’re reading a poem, and poems tend to make use of common language, it could be that the author just uses informal grammar.
