Which is correct and why: What can she do to stop (them, their) thinking about us?

thaver

"What can she do to stop their thinking about us?" ("Their" serves as an adjective or motifier for the "thinking" that she wishes to stop.) "What can she do to stop them from thinking about us" is also correct (Notice that she know desires to stop "them" rather than the "thinking.") IRONICALLY - in spoken grammar [particullarly with TGG] it is acceptable to omit the understood preposition "from." Thus, "What can she do to stop them thinking about us" is no less correct. Mind you this is in accourdance with American English. I would love to hear the British response to this question. Feb 12 06, 2:41 AM

mementoflash

"Them" would imply what could be done to the actual people who are doing the thinking, while "their" would imply the actual thoughts themselves. So both could be correct depending on the implication desired. Feb 12 06, 5:14 AM

benniebenbenny

Them indicates " passive " thought , while Their indicates " active " . Maybe . Feb 12 06, 7:46 AM

Baloo55th

Agreed. If you take thinking as a gerund (? never was too sure about gerunds), it's a sort of noun thing anyway and their is correct - 'their thinking etc' being the object of stop. If you take it as a verb participle, then them is correct as the object of stop. And that's a British point of view. Feb 12 06, 10:24 AM

lanfranco

"Thinking about us" is an example of a gerund phrase --the gerund "thinking" together with complements and modifiers. (A gerund is verb form used as a noun.) Whenever a noun or pronoun precedes a gerund phrase, the possessive should be used: "What can she do to stop THEIR thinking about us?" Feb 12 06, 10:37 AM