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I have recently found the following. I do know the first sentence is wrong.

(1) "I am not a fan of him."

Meaning : I am not his fan.

(2) I am not a fan of his.

Meaning : I am not one of his fans.

But this is controversial. Are they correct? Some people say YES YES YES; others say NO NO NO. Please clarify it.

Community
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Sandip Kumar Mandal
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1 Answers1

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Both are grammatically correct.

In (1) try substituting a proper noun for 'him'. For example we might say, "I am not a fan of Tolstoy". This is surely fine, so going back to "him" (the personal pronoun in the accusative case following the preposition 'of') is surely also fine.

In (2), "of his" is an accepted construction, but not one that would occur to a learner of the language well-versed in the ordinary rules.

(1) and (2) mean slightly different things. (1) doesn't imply a relationship of fanship as strongly as (2) does. (2) hints that in some sense the fan belongs to, or is in thrall to, the man admired.

Philip Wood
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  • No. This sort of reasoning-by-analogy leads to false results. For instance, if one takes " 'He is taller than I am' means that 'He is taller than me' is incorrect", one is arguing against the tide of English usage. One has to look at what (proficient) English speakers in the main actually say. It's always better to add supporting evidence, too. 'I am not a fan of him' is rare, according to the Ngram data. And 'This is a painting of him' has a different meaning. And *'Peter was a disciple of Him.' // Please note that this is a clear duplicate; these should be close-voted, not 'answer'ed. – Edwin Ashworth May 05 '20 at 18:59
  • @Edwin Ashworth: Is the reasoning-by-analogy that you object to the substitution of 'Tolstoy' for 'him'? – Philip Wood May 05 '20 at 19:32
  • Yes. 'Give John it', for instance, is unacceptable in just about every dialect, but 'Give him it' is quite acceptable in conversation in at least many parts of the UK. 'Turn on the light' is fine everywhere, I'd guess, whereas 'turn on it' isn't. As has been said on ELU (and elsewhere) many times, argument from analogy isn't reliable. ELU requires better-supported answers. // But why not delete an answer to clear duplicate, and close-vote? – Edwin Ashworth May 06 '20 at 11:31
  • @Edwin Ashworth: 'Give John it' is an excellent example. Well done! – Philip Wood May 06 '20 at 11:51