“Let his/him come in.”
Hi everybody! Few days ago my mate attended to a job competition for a job in the technical office of Rome. Among the many legal questions there were also some English questions. The one I am asking your help for is:
“Let ……. come in.”
the possible answers proposed are:
- his
- him
- he
I am sure that all of you are thinking that the only right option to chose is “him”, that’s it.
Initially it was confirmed “his” with correct answer and after few days was corrected with “him”.
The english questions/phrases put in these competitions are generally extracted form bigger pieces, books.. and my partner didn’t answer because he says that in a certain contests it can be also right “Let his come in”, for example:
Michele is waiting for the vet to visit his cat. When the vet wants to visit Michele’s cat can say to his secretary:
<< Let his come in >> instead of << Let his cat come in>>.
What do you think? Is it possible consider both the options “his” and “him” correct?
Have you read some examples in books or articles in which you have found the phrase “Let his come in” ?
It can help my partner to obtain the job because he got a score of 20.8 and he had to get 21 to obtain the job! So it is very important the help of all of you.
Thanks !!!!!!!!!
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Let him come in. That’s it. Sorry.
You simply would not hear possessive “his” in this context.
Nell Thomas Jul-16-2021
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If it's an exam and there's no space for comments, I would definitely put "him."
Having said that, there are some cases when it could be "his" such as in the following dialogue:
"There are three cats in the waiting room. Two are with a woman who has been waiting since 10 o'clock. The other is with a man who just rushed in and has to catch a plane in one hour."
"Let his come in."
Here we are distinguishing between her cats and his cat and it is very clear what is being said.
Dogdays Aug-31-2021
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The word "his" is used in two senses, parallel to "my/your" and also to "mine/yours".
Let's not use "cat" in this example since cats are rarely capable of doing what we want them to. Let's use "child" instead.
That is my/his child.
That child is mine/his.
Let my child come in.
Let mine come in.
Let his child come in.
Let his come in.
Grammatically, I think it's fine in the right context.
ummagummibear Sep-26-2021
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Let his come in is wrong.
Let his cat come in is right.
If the cat is a he then let him come in is also right. (him referring to the cat)
Rik853 Jul-15-2021
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This is a mistake requiring the use of formal grammar.
the use of "Let ... come in" requires either a noun or a pronoun (ie one of these grammatical words that replaces a noun -eg when you want to avoid being redundant)
The issue with "his" is that it is not a pronoun such as me/you/him/her/it/us/they (and generally it is not a noun) in English, but, rather, a possessive adjective (as in "his book") or a possessive pronoun (replacing a possessive adjective and the noun that follows...).
Therefore 'Let his cat come in' can work, and then on its own 'don't let my cat in, but let his come in' could possibly work as an exception, though it is very heavy...
fp2161 Nov-18-2021
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I had some confusion regardig this matter. Thanks for explaining the fact simply with me!
niamul21 Mar-28-2022
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"Let his come in" has 9 hits on Google.
"Let him come in" has 996,000.
So if your partner chooses 'his' instead of 'him,' he (or she) has a 1 in 110,667 chance of getting the job.
brewmaster Jun-02-2022
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In grammar, a sentence is the basic grammatical unit. It contains a group of words and expresses a complete thought. A sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. For example in the sentence "Bill writes good poems" Bill is the subject of the sentence and writes good poems is the predicate.
jackfranklin Oct-06-2021
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@fp2161 I don't even know the possible exception for 'let his come in'. It sounds strange.
revamoli Feb-22-2022
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This is why language can't be taught from a book; it has to be heard to be accurately understood and repeatable--English far less so than, say, Mandarin, but here's one comparatively rare occurrence where emphasis and intonation are crucial to the meaning.
Or is that so rare, in English?
user111491 Jun-28-2022
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I just had such complicated questions..
nadiee44 Mar-12-2023
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