So like the problem is this, a friend of mine told me Your trying to outplay me failed miserably And i corrected them and said its You trying to outplay me failed miserably But then he said i was wrong and we cant ask anyone who is right about this matter so please help guys!! I know this is unrelated to novels but i really dont know where else to ask 〒_〒
Yeah, because in case #1 it'd be "Your try" Though it's been far too long since I learned the grammatical reason why that's the case in school ^^'
(Your trying)(to outplay me)(failed miserably). Isn't all wrong, just not that easy to pick up on when written down. (You trying to outplay me)(failed miserably). Would be more commonly used. More down to preference tbh
You trying to outplay me failed miserably Is correct Although because you guys are mashing together 2 phrases you technically need a comma after me
^^ Correct! In the first, the idea is that it's a reference to an action you did. "Trying" is the subject, which is what the action of "failed" applies to, and that's why we modify it with the possessive "your". i.e. Your dancing was wonderful. In the second, the subject has become "you". Therefore "trying" is the modifier, and "failed" is the action. But we don't need to modify "trying" anymore! i.e. You aced the exam very quickly.
Although I'm more inclined to choose option 1.. it really is up to your preference. It's a kind of sentence that sort of mentally tripped you, you passed it by but then got you the urge to look again and see if you really read it correctly. And my readers did often told me that my writing is hard to understand sometimes