Young Writers Society

Remember, as I write this, I have a (mild) migraine. It's mainly gone now, but my head still hurts, so that may be why I'm having such a stupid moment.

And if this is in the wrong spot, sorry! Just blame my migraine...

Anyways, I was wondering how you could write this:

My father is pacing the floor.

In English, we tend to run together 'father' and 'is.' Can we write this in (narrative) stories? (I know it's fine in the dialogue, though.)

Should I do:

My father's pacing the floor.

OR

My fathers pacing the floor.

Neither one looks right to me, but I don't want to say 'is,' because it slows down the story too much. Saying 'My mother is walking, my father is pacing, and my brother is sleeping' gets annoying. (I wouldn't actually write that, but you get the point. For effect, I do need to use 'my father is...' in my story, but it's so slow!)

Help? *Chants 'Migraines must die, migraines must die...'*

~JFW1415

The first one is correct, I think. (My father's pacing.) Fathers would be more than one father. Father's pacing does look kind of like the pacing belongs to father instead of father is pacing, though... I'm not sure.

Jennafina wrote:The first one is correct, I think. (My father's pacing.) Fathers would be more than one father. Father's pacing does look kind of like the pacing belongs to father instead of father is pacing, though... I'm not sure.

My thinking exactly. It's so confusing! Urgh.

So this isn't just my migraine? It is a confusing thing?

~JFW1415

"My father paces the floor" gets you out of the "is" issue.

But if you're determined to use "is", "My father's pacing the floor" is correct. You know that it's not possessive because "pacing" is the verb of the sentence and clearly not the subject of the sentence. If "pacing" was followed by a verb ("My father's pacing is sporadic."), then the "'s" would be possessive because "pacing" is the subject.
I'm pretty sure I'm right about this. The subject/verb thing might be a little iffy, but I should be in the same ballpark.

Perra wrote:"My father paces the floor" gets you out of the "is" issue.

Heehee...Yeah, that works too.

*Hides behind migraine*

It ain't my fault! I mean, innt! I mean...I mean...oh, never mind. *Goes to sulk*

I hate migraines.

Thanks!

~JFW1415

Father's can be taken in two different ways, which are the ways ya'll have identified. It can be possessive or it can be the contraction. It's only because we're all so lazy that we slur is into the noun.

The reader [hopefully] can tell how it is used based on the rest of your sentence. ^^

JFW1415 wrote:*Hides behind migraine*

It ain't my fault! I mean, innt! I mean...I mean...oh, never mind. *Goes to sulk*

I hate migraines.

Thanks!

Aw, I understand! Migraines can be pretty awful and distracting.

You're welcome!

Oh, I get migraines too. They're awful. Although mine tend to be the 'my brain is about to go splat in my skull, must lie in dark room and die' type. Nothing mild about them...

And then I get really depressed for about two days...aren't they just so fun?

It does tend to make me a little stupid for a while afterwards though as well...my brain goes foggy.

'father's' is definitely correct.