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In the his
2012/12/22
2:26am
Raffee
Iran
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I heard someone say, "Of all the high schools, and all the towns, and all the world she walked in the his". 

I think(!) I have no problem with it, but neither do I have a reason for it. What if we said, "… she walked in his"?

2012/12/22
4:10am
tromboniator
Alaska
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This is a variant of the very famous line from the movie Casablanca in which Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart) says, "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine." I suspect that what you're looking for is into his.

2012/12/22
4:25am
Glenn
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Tromboniator is right. "the his" would never be correct.

2012/12/22
12:08pm
Heimhenge
New River, AZ, USA
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The closest thing I could come up with to match what Raffee heard is:

… she walked into that which was his.

Seems like an unnecessarily complex construction though. Tromboniator's suggestion works better.

Raffee: Saying "… she walked in his" doesn't work because that changes the meaning to "where she walked" instead of "where she entered/arrived."

The words "in" and "into" are both prepositions, and sometimes get interchanged, but the meanings are definitely different.

2012/12/23
8:22am
Raffee
Iran
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Yes, "into his". The second, or the third, time I 'commit' this blunder. *embarrassed*

T's d-like pronunciation caused it. 

2013/01/07
1:01am
Matt
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A nonnative speaker of English might make such a mistake.

For example, in Italian, one says, "la sua scuola è molto grande" (the his school is very big).  

 

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