I'm learning English as my second language, and what one of my college teacher explained seems not quiet right.
He said that these words, such as 'grab, pull, etc', whenever they are used, it has to be like this:
He grabbed her by the arm, or He took him by the collar.
Not like:
He grabbed her arm, or He took his collar.
He said the person that comes after the verb always has to be objective, never possessive, and preposition has to follow them.
I've already googled these words and saw many usages like:
'My boyfriend grabbed my arm.Is that abuse?'
I know saying like 'he grab her on the arm' is not wrong, but is it wrong to say or write 'he grab her arm'?
Best Answer
Both sentences are correct. The difference can be illustrated by context.
He grabbed her by the arm and started to pull her towards the door. [He is performing an action on her and he uses her arm as a way to do it.]
He grabbed her arm so that he could see what was tattooed on it. [He is performing an action specifically on her arm -- not on her whole person.]
The teacher took the misbehaving student by the collar and escorted him out of the classroom. [He used the collar as a means to move the pupil.]
He took his collar. [This perhaps refers to a removable collar such as is found on a dress suit. Someone took/removed/perhaps even stole the collar.]