Learn English – insist on somebody(‘s) doing something

grammaticality-in-contextpossessives

Which of the two sentences below is correct?

Why do you insist so much on your child learning your native language?

or:

Why do you insist so much on your child's learning your native language?

Best Answer

I've seen either, and both can be accepted as correct. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article on possessives (Although beware of all of the linguist jargon, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_possessive#Actions):

"When possessives are used with a verbal noun or other noun expressing an action, the possessive may represent either the doer of the action (the subject of the corresponding verb) or the undergoer of the action (the object of the verb). The same applies to of phrases. When a possessive and an of phrase are used with the same action noun, the former generally represents the subject and the latter the object. For example:

  • Fred’s dancing (or the dancing of Fred) – Fred is the dancer (only possible meaning with this verb)
  • the proposal's rejection or the rejection of the proposal – the proposal is rejected
  • Fred's rejection of the proposal – Fred is the rejecter, the proposal is rejected

"When a gerundive phrase acts as the object of a verb or preposition, the agent/subject of the gerund may be possessive or not, reflecting two different but equally valid interpretations of the phrase's structure:

  • I object to Ralph destroying the barn. (Ralph is the subject of the gerundive verb "destroying.")
  • I object to Ralph's destroying the barn. (Ralph is the genitive of the verbal noun "destroying.")

End quote.

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