Phrases like know one’s [general subject of interest] are very annoying to me because they seem rather self-centered. I am obviously fine with knows his way around or Know Your Customer because the use of possesive pronouns is appropriate.
On the other hand, now I know my ABCs is atrocious because the modern Latin alphabet obviously does not and never did belong to a single person, and has been used by billions of people in the last few centuries.

Do you know other English phrases with unnecessary posessive or personal pronouns? Do they exist in other languages? Is there a name for this linguistic phenomenon? Where do I complain? /s

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@lemmy.mlOP
    0·
    1 year ago

    I can understand German and my native language is Czech. Could you provide some German examples? What you described (which I imagine could be im Nebel so dick dass du deine Füße nicht sehen könntest/in fog so thick that you could not see your feet) seems like an entirely normal use of personal pronouns to me (though the generic pronoun man/one would be better to use in formal writing in the previous example, as the perspective is objective). And yes, I did not use dative but I don’t think this would be bound to a specific declension form.