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If my pie is hot, and Lola's pie is hot. Can I say

"Lola and my's pies are hot"?

Or should it be

"Lola's and my pies are hot"?

These posts, "My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner" and Yours vs. your's deal with possessive pronouns and the Saxon genitive, but do not address specifically the case illustrated here.

Dan
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    '... only one is accepted as a standard; namely, "my wife's and my" ' (Kosmonaut). – Edwin Ashworth Jul 29 '17 at 00:11
  • How can you possibly think that "My's pies" is grammatical? Likewise, if someone were to write: "Your's house is number 10", "His's house is number 10" and "Our's house..." we would all agree that it is not English. I thought you were a native speaker. Aren't you? – Mari-Lou A Jul 29 '17 at 06:22
  • @Mari-LouA - Yes, I'm a native speaker. It's just that I found myself saying Lola and my's pies... and it jarred. That's why I posted my question. The 'duplicate', which I have read, doesn't appear to address this specific usage - possessive pronouns taking a Saxon genitive. Your scornful rhetorical question (My's pies!?) quotes my sample phrase partially, which misses the whole point. And your example should read something like John's house is number 10; Your house is number 10; Both John and yours' houses are number 10. Have you never heard a native speak this way? – Dan Jul 29 '17 at 11:13
  • But if you agree that "His's house is..." is ungrammatical, then it follows that a longer sentence such as: "Alice and John live next door to each other. Alice's house is No.11 while his's house is number 10" is odd. P.S I didn't vote for the duplicate but for lack of research. PPS If I sounded scornful, it wasn't meant to be. It was meant to sound incredulous, amazed and bewildered. – Mari-Lou A Jul 29 '17 at 11:38
  • Related: Yours vs. your's and Correct usage of possessive personal pronouns and What possessive pronouns do have an apostrophe? – Mari-Lou A Jul 29 '17 at 11:49
  • @Mari-LouA - "His's house is..." misses the point, which is explained in Kosmonaut's answer. It's the phrase that gets the Saxon genitive. – Dan Jul 29 '17 at 19:17
  • So, does the older question "get the point" and answer your question? And it's convenient that you ignore the longer genitive sentence which I included. But here is an amended version "Alice and his's house..." Are you still confused about the legitimacy of "Lola and my's pies..."? – Mari-Lou A Jul 29 '17 at 19:21
  • @Mari-LouA - The OP first version is not standard, but can be argued for on the basis that the whole phrase is having a Saxon genitive attached - Both-John-and-your's houses..., Alice-and-his's house..., Lola-and-my's pies... . – Dan Jul 30 '17 at 08:31
  • ...although I have understood from the reaction here that speaking this way is regarded by some as "sub-literate" (thanks for the links @Mari-LouA). – Dan Jul 30 '17 at 08:48
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    Both Lola's pie and mine are hot. – Peter Shor Jul 30 '17 at 11:39
  • @PeterShor - Yes. The trouble is, in the heat of the moment, I'd already started saying "Lola's and my ...". At that point I simply wanted to get to the end of the idea. And what came out, unplanned (obviously) was my first version. Clearly sub-literate! – Dan Jul 30 '17 at 12:53

2 Answers2

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Your first example is certainly ungrammatical. The second version is much better, although it still sounds clumsy. It's a downside of the way possessives work in English and anyone wishing their writing to sound elegant would be better finding a different way to express it, eg:

  • Lola's pie is hot and so is mine.
  • Lola and I each have a pie and they are both hot.
  • Lola's pie is hot like mine.

etc.

Daniel Austin
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The first sentence is ungrammatical. These are better alternatives:

Both Lola's pie and my pie are hot.

Lola's pie is hot, so is mine.

Community
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Aravind Suresh Thakidayil
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