Please, could you help me?
Hi, there

Could you help me with a few questions please?

1) Do you say "The Earth rotates on its axis" or "Earth rotates on its axis"?
2) Do you say "Woe is me' or "Woe is I"? And "This is she" or "This is her"?
3) Should I use read or reading here as a noun? " there are poems here that would be essential reading/read(s) for any overview of 20th century Portuguese literature."
4) Finally, do you say "These muffins are my wife's and mine" or "These muffins are my and my wife's"? And "These are your friend's and yours" or "These are your and your friend's"?
Neither?
Thank you very much!

Question

Please, could you help me?
Hi, there

Could you help me with a few questions please?

1) Do you say  "The Earth rotates on its axis" or "Earth rotates on its axis"?
2) Do you say "Woe is me' or "Woe is I"? And "This is she" or "This is her"?
3) Should I use read or reading here as a noun? " there are poems here that would be essential reading/read(s) for any overview of 20th century Portuguese literature."
4) Finally, do you say "These muffins are my wife's and mine" or "These muffins are my and my wife's"? And "These are your friend's and yours" or "These are your and your friend's"?
Neither?
Thank you very much!

Answer

1) Both sound fine.
2) "Woe is me" and "This is her" Both of these may technically be grammatically incorrect, but nobody would say it the other way these days.
3) Reading. "Reads" also works but sounds a lot more informal—like, an article might be titled "top summer reads" but that's about the only time it would be used like that.
4) I don't think even native speakers are in agreement on this one! They all sound sort of awkward so people tend to avoid phrasing things like this. There may be some grammatical rule that nobody follows. I've even heard people say, "These are my wife and I's muffins" which is absolutely incorrect and looks really bad when written but sounds pretty normal in conversation. As long as you stick to possessive forms (mine/yours/theirs), any order should be okay.

Answers · 1

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