I liked the idea of his having a rest: 'his' instead of 'him'

[NinaZara]

I liked the idea of his having a rest

Can anybody explain to me why we should use 'his' instead of 'him' in this sentence?

[Jamie (K)]

Having is a gerund in this sentence. Therefore it's a noun, so you use the possessive his before it.

If you use him, then you have something called a "small clause", in which him is the subject (even though it's in object case) and having is a tenseless verb. Small clauses have no tense -- so any verb is in the base form or the present participle -- and sometimes they have no verb at all.

You can find out more by googling the term "small clause".

[NinaZara]

Thanks Jamie.

I totally forgot about gerunds.Have been trying to convince myself 'having a rest' made a noun when it was actually a small clause.

So what`s the difference between small clauses and clauses?Clauses have tense and are longer perhaps?

[Jamie (K)]