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I understand the rules for dual possessives, but I was writing and I realized that I have no idea how the following sentence should be written.

She and Kevin's house is big.

or

Her and Kevin's house is big.

Normally for a dual possessive, if there is joint possession (two people owning one thing), only the last noun takes the possessive form, but the first sentence sounds and reads awkwardly. Is it actually correct?

The pronoun seems to be the source of the confusion, as I would have no trouble choosing between the following:

Kim and Kevin's house is big.
Kim's and Kevin's house is big.

The first would be correct because the house belongs to both Kim and Kevin, so only the last noun, "Kevin", takes the possessive form. Does the same rule apply when one of the nouns is a pronoun, or is there a different rule in such cases? Can someone help me out, please?

Note: I realize that there are similar discussions already:
"My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner"
Question about dual possesive nouns
Correct form of object of sentence with grouped possessive and personal pronoun?

However, these questions only discuss the proper formation of the first-person pronoun in such cases (i.e., "I" vs. "my"). I'm interested in the rules for correctly forming the third-person pronoun.

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  • Why would anything change? – tchrist Jun 09 '14 at 02:04
  • The house jointly belongs to both, right? Why multiple possessives? Where's the problem? What's awkward about it? – Kris Jun 09 '14 at 05:24
  • This follows exactly the same thinking as other joint possessives -- that is, both become possessives -- so I reckon it's a duplicate. She and Kevin's house is big is ungrammatical for two reasons: either it's Her and Kevin's house is big or She and Kevin's house are* big* (but that's distinctly unflattering, saying that Kim is as big as a house). For more than one house (they live separately) it's Her and Kevin's houses* are big*. – Andrew Leach Jun 09 '14 at 06:08

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