Do my bolded/underlined verb choices look correct to you? 1. He, not you, is responsible for the accident. 2. You, not he, are responsible for the accident. 3. I, not you, am responsible for the accident. 4. They, not she, are responsible for the accident. 5. She, not they, is responsible for the accident. 6. Look okay? --> It was Steve's and my first date. (It was Steve's first date; it was my first date.) Thank you.
#6 is correct, but deeply inelegant. It was my first date with Steve. It was our first date. Also, the construction in #6 is not parallel to the others. In the others, the interjection can be omitted because it is not connected to the true subject. It does not make for a compound subject. In #6, the active verb was is answering to It, not (Steve's and my first date). It's not a similar construction to the prior four.
Sorry, I miscounted. My prior post should read #6 everywhere I put #5. And yes, the construction is correct, but it reads... clumsily. This is not to say that someone would not say it this way, but I personally would not. Everything within the parentheses below is all one long noun phrase. Grammatically, it is a single block, all which is modifying the word date, which is the core noun. It was (Steve's and my first date). What kind of date? Steve's date My date. First date. It's just too long and complex a noun phrase with the possessive and the compound adjectival modifier before you get to the core noun, date. Just MHO.
all i can do is ditto wrey and thank him for saving me all that typing... muchisimas gracias, amigo mio!
