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I'm a fan of yours vs I'm your fan

Two friends meet at a bar.

One says to the other who is a local musician with quite a few fans.

  1. I've never told you this but I'm actually your fan.

How does it sound?

ASDASD ASDASD
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    Idiomatically, I'd say that (to my midwest U.S. ear) "I've never told you this but I'm actually a fan of yours." sounds most idiomatic, but strangely "I've never told you this but I'm actually your biggest fan." is a particular usage that makes an exception. – AmateurDotCounter Feb 03 '23 at 14:49
  • It's not "strange". Since you can only have ***one*** "biggest fan", it's perfectly natural to use the prepositionless construction (same as we say ***your nose***, not ***a nose of yours***). – FumbleFingers Feb 03 '23 at 14:54
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    Does this answer your question? [Is there any difference in meaning between "your" and "sth of yours"](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/303236/is-there-any-difference-in-meaning-between-your-and-sth-of-yours). Also ["My..." Vs. "of mine"](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/226178/my-vs-of-mine) and [Which one sounds better? "of mine" or "my"](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/71167/which-one-sounds-better-of-mine-or-my), among others. – FumbleFingers Feb 03 '23 at 14:55

1 Answers1

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"I'm a fan of yours" sounds most natural. "I'm your fan" is grammatically correct and understandable, but makes it sound like they have only one fan (and it's you).

As AmateurDotCounter noted, "I'm your biggest fan" is a set phrase that is an exception, but it's an exception because logically there can be only one "biggest fan". Since you're claiming to be that one fan, using a grammatical construction that implies only one biggest fan is perfectly sensible.

Aos Sidhe
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