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Which one of the following sentences of the same meaning are more natural to a native speaker's ear?

  1. My poverty is a result of my failing to assert myself.

  2. My poverty is a result of me failing to assert myself.

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Mehdi Haghgoo
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    Should we assume that the only point of interest is "me vs my"? Personally, I'd prefer "... my failure to assert myself"... but if that's out of the question, let me know. – Catija Aug 07 '15 at 20:20
  • Yes "me vs my", "his vs him", and so on before ing form of a verb. Which is natural? Or it depends? – Mehdi Haghgoo Aug 07 '15 at 20:28
  • It's a matter of personal preference. I believe this may be a duplicate of this question. Let me know if that answers your question and I'll mark it as a duplicate. – Catija Aug 07 '15 at 20:29
  • Yes, I think they are discussing the same thing. thank you – Mehdi Haghgoo Aug 07 '15 at 20:31

2 Answers2

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In my mind it depends on how I interpret it.

My poverty / is a result of / my failing to assert myself.

In this case, my is a possessive adjective, modifying "failing".

or

My poverty / is a result of me / failing to assert myself.

where me is an objective pronoun, part of the prepositional phrase "to me".

user3169
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It makes no difference in meaning whether you use the possessive pronoun (my) or the object pronoun (me) in the sentence presented. The use of the possessive pronoun is considered more appropriate in formal English.

Frankly speaking, as a non-native speaker, I would like to use "my failure", as commented by Catija, to avoid any confusion.

My poverty is the result of my failure to assert myself.

Khan
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