Showing possession for two nouns owning one item

Well, I'd say their room, or...his and Megan's room. His and Megan's sounds rather too constructed to me. I have a bias toward the most natural correct speech, though of course I frequently fall short of that, especially online.

I know of no reason which disqualifies "his and her room," both possessors are indicated by gender and number, and a singular possessed item is indicated--and it does no violence to the understanding of any reasonably competent speaker of either the English or the American language.

Thanks for your repsonses.

"Their" wouldn't work in this situation, since "Megan" had not been referred to in the previous sentence, but, yes, "their" would be a good choice otherwise.

Setanta: Love your use of language.

I still think that--according to the style manual--"he" would be correct, even though "his" sounds better.

Or . . . would "him" be correct?

Consider . . .

"I'm going to me and Margaret's room."

versus

"I'm going to my and Margaret's room."

It would never be

"I'm going to I and Margaret's room."

So . . . which is correct?

"My" or "me"?

Unfortunately, the style manual does not address the use of pronouns in this situation, but clearly, it does indicate the the first noun mentioned is not shown in the possessive; therefore, one can assume that the same rule would apply to pronouns as well, since pronouns agree with their antecedents in gender, number, and case.

Comments?

Well . . . I guess technically pronouns don't agree with their antecedents in case, if they are being used in a different part of the sentence.

Which previous sentence? Two of them mentioned dear Megan.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear.

This is a sentence in a book, and Megan wasn't mentioned in the previous sentence, so "they" wouldn't be indicating both "him" and "her."

I got an answer from a friend I think I can live with.

She said that the first uninflected noun is actually in the possessive--not the nominative, and not the objective--the apostrophe es is shared between the two nouns. So . . . if a pronoun replaces the first noun, it would also be in the possessive.

'My' is the correct use. You would not say, I will go to "me" room. c.ii.

Given your exact question, of whether the first pronoun should be in the possessive, I think so and see that the style book agrees.

Thanks. I know that sounds fairly obvious, but that trick doesn't necessarily apply here.

Consider

"I'm going to my aunt and uncle's house."

vs.

"I'm going to my aunt . . . house."

Simplifying it down to just one possessive noun, if the first noun in the dual nouns is used without inflection, would not work.

"I'm going to my aunt's and uncle's house" is not correct, according the Chicago Manual of Style.

Thanks for your comments. As always, they are most stimulating.

I know that aunt's and uncle's house wouldn't be correct (or, I think I know it..)

I was just quibbling in the first place about the use of two nouns or pronouns at all, and that choice would depend on what preceded the sentence in the conversation.

Dupre, now I am not sure that aunt's and uncle's is wrong. I just tried out a similar sentence on another forum, didn't add the apostrophe for the first noun, and the sentence I posted looked wrong.

Aha! My style book says "In the case of compounds or of nouns in joint possession the possessive form is taken by the last word only. In case of individual possession, each noun takes the possessive form.
Example of the latter - Helen's and Mary's clothes.

So, the examples in your question do deal with joint possession, and in my post on another forum, deal with individual possession. Aaacck, gotta go edit that!

Ossobuco, we must have posted over each other. My response was for Cicerone Imposter.

BTW, where do you see that the style book agrees that the first PRONOUN should be in the possessive? It clearly indicates that the first NOUN should not be inflected.

"I'm going to my aunt's and uncle's house" is not correct, according the Chicago Manual of Style.

What happens if you have more than one aunt and uncle? c.i.

How about

"I'm going to visit at my aunts' and uncles' houses this summer."

But, for my taste, I would recast the sentence. Always a choice when meaning or speaking is difficult.

Excuse me, now I see it wasn't your style book, or your friend's stylebook, but you or your friend who mentioned that the first word, if a pronoun, would be in the possessive.

CI, I think that "going to my aunt and uncle's house" would be correct because of their joint ownership.

...selecting some of Mary's and Helen's clothes would be correct because they individually own their clothes. That is from my old Harbrace Handbook of English.

I guess that if all your aunts and uncles jointly owned one vacation house, then you would be going to your aunts and uncles' vacation house, huh?

My little book doesn't mention pronouns in discussing all this, but I think pronouns just act in place of a noun, and would follow the same apostrophe rules.

C'mon, folks. The answer to the original question is so simple! We are talking about possessives here. 'He' is in the nominative, not possessive, case. To say 'he and Megan's room' doesn't just sound awkward -- it is gramatically silly. The same rule would apply to something as twisted as 'me and Megan's' or 'I and Megan's.' The possessive case for those promouns is 'my.'

I submitted the question to The Chicago Manual of Style web site.

I can't live with the fact that the pronoun replacing the first noun should not agree with the noun it is replacing in gender, number, and case. A hard a fast, fail-proof rule, which works in all the romance languages I've studied. No teacher ever said, ". . . except for the case of the first uninflected possessive noun showing dual ownership of a single item."

Is nothing sacred?????

I also ordered the new 15th edition, which is due out in August, in case anyone wants to put in an order.

I'll post their reply and explanation here.