Table of Contents
What is a Personal Pronoun?
A personal pronoun can be used to refer to yourself.pronounThis is a grammatical meaning that refers to a specific person.
The following rules are applicable when discussing “person” as a grammatical term:
Personal pronouns can take many forms, depending on how many they are (singular or multiple). You may find them in different forms depending on the case, gender or formality. Personal pronouns can refer to people, animals, and objects.
The following information is provided by personal pronouns:
Examples of personal pronouns
An example of a personal pronoun is the word “he”. He refers to third person, singular and masculine. Another example of a personal pronoun is the word “we”. We are first person (because speak as a group), plural and neuter.
The following examples show personal pronouns in italics.
- Stop lying to me.
- We are happy to have you as a guest.
- Take a look at my cat! He climbed up to the top of this tree.
Subject Pronouns and Personal Pronouns
A personal pronoun is a pronoun that replaces a noun in a sentence. It can also be used as the subject of the sentence.Subject pronoun. What is a subject pronoun and how does it work? It is a pronoun that replaces a common or properly noun in a sentence as its subject.
A personal pronoun is one that you use to refer to a person, animal or place. It can also be used to describe a person, animal or thing.
Personal Pronouns and Object Pronouns
An anonymous personal pronoun is one that is either the direct or indirect subject of a verb or is used as the object in a preposition.Pronoun object. What is an object pronoun, you ask? It is any pronoun affected by the action of the sentence subject.
Although they are not the same as personal pronouns used as subject pronouns in object pronouns, they are equally important. There are seven object pronouns, which can also be used as personal pronouns. you, him, hers, it, us and them.
What are Subject Pronouns and Object Pronouns Relating to Personal Pronouns
As with all personal pronouns subject pronouns as object pronouns can be used to avoid repetition in sentences. They are also associated with a particular person, group, animal or inanimate object.
It can sometimes be hard to distinguish between object and subject pronouns. It is helpful to remember that a subject refers to the content of a sentence, while an object affects the action of the subject.
Like other personal pronouns subject and object pronouns may take on different forms depending upon the number of words, i.e. They can be singular or plural. They can also be used with any one of the three grammatical people, i.e. They can be used with any of the three grammatical persons, i.e. first-person or second-person.
Finally, subject and object pronouns can be related to each other and to all personal pronouns. However, the words used may differ depending upon the natural or grammatical genders of the words.
Examples of sentences that contain both subject and object pronouns
- Iwant to see this book.
- Youare our fastest runner, and we rely on you.
- Theytalked to about acting in the play.
- We enjoyed hearing her sing.
Comparing Subject and Obj Pronouns
The following table will allow you to compare object and subject pronouns. You will notice that not all subject pronouns match certain object pronouns.
Subject Pronoun | Object Pronoun |
It | It |
You | You |
What | What |
I | Me |
He | Him |
She | Her |
We | Use |
Who | Whom |
They | These are their secrets |
Personal Pronoun Exercises
These exercises will help to understand the workings of personal pronouns. To complete each sentence, choose the best answer.
- __________ often reads until late at night.
- He
- Alan
- Mary
- They
- __________ is running up and down the stairs.
- The cat
- She
- My brother
- You
- __________ is from Ireland.
- Rory
- My friend
- He
- This souvenir
- Have __________ got a dog, Mary?
- Anyone
- They
- Someone
- It
- We enjoy the roses so much. __________ really liven up the garden.
- They
- Its
- Someone
- Flowers
- Melissa isn’t an architect; __________ is an engineer.
- He
- They
- It
- She
- Are __________ friends or not?
- He
- She
- We
- It
- My doctor was born in Germany. __________ teaches language lessons in his spare time.
- They
- It
- She
- He
- All of my teachers are Americans. __________ come from all over the country.
- She
- We
- They
- Them
- Our friends are athletes. All of __________ are either strong, fast, or both.
- We
- They
- Them
- You
Answers:
- A – He often reads until late at night.
- B – She is running up and down the stairs.
- C – He is from Ireland.
- B – Have they got a dog, Mary?
- A – We enjoy the roses so much. They really liven up the garden.
- D – Melissa isn’t an architect; she is an engineer.
- C – Are we friends or not?
- D – My doctor was born in Germany. He teaches language lessons in his spare time.
- C – All of my teachers are Americans. They come from all over the country.
- C – Our friends are athletes. All of them are either strong, fast, or both.
AnounIt is used to identify people instead of their actual names.Personal pronoun. For example, “I”, we, you, she, them, it, etc.
Subjective Case
A personal pronoun should be in the subjective case if the pronoun functions as a subject or subject complement.
A subject pronoun usually comes before the verb; a subject complement pronoun follows a linking verb.
Singular | Plural | |
First person | I | We |
Second person | You | You |
Third person | He/She/It | They |
- We are successful. (Subject)
- You like pizza. (Subject)
- The winners were Majid and I. (Subject complement)
Objective Case
If a pronoun stands for any other noun than a subject or subject complement, use the objective case.
Object pronouns can be direct objects, indirect objects or objects of prepositions. You may have noticed that you and it are on both lists.
Singular | Plural | |
First Person | Me | Us |
Second Person | You | You |
Third Person | Him/Her/it | Them |
Possessive Case
In possessive case, the pronouns show possession or belonging. It has two types
Possessive Determiners:
These are used before a noun such as my, your, his, her, its, ours, theirs etc.
Example: This is your table.
Possessive Pronoun:
The possessive pronouns are used instead of personal pronoun such as mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs.
Example: This is your table. It is similar to mine.
Reflexive Case
In reflexive cases, the pronoun is used before the noun, pronoun, adjective or adverb in the same clause. Reflexive pronouns are myself, ourselves, yourself, himself, herself etc.
Examples:
Chart of Personal Pronoun
Following table shows the different cases of personal pronouns. In the possessive case, the first word is possessive determiner (my, our, your…) and the second word is possessive pronoun (mine, ours, yours….)
Subjective or nominative case | Objective case | Possessive case | Reflexive case |
I | Me | My, Mine | Myself |
We | Us | Our, Ours | Ourselves |
You | You | Your, Yours | Yourself |
He | Him | His, His | Himself |
She | Her | Her, Hers | Herself |
They | Them | Their, Theirs | Themselves |
Usage
Use of object or subject pronoun after comparatives “as” and “than”. Object pronouns are commonly used when “as” and “than” work as prepositions.
For example,
Subject pronouns are used if “as” and “than” function as conjunction.
When a clause can be completed after the pronoun. For example,
Object pronouns are used in the following case exclamation. For example, He has been promoted – lucky him.
“One” is used as an indefinite pronoun meaning such as anyone or everyone.
Example,
One must do one’s job.
“So” and “it” are replaceable after certain verbs like do, guess, know, remember. For example
Do you know he got admission to a college? Yes, I know it.
“It” is used as an empty subject in the following situations.
With such structures with a “to-infinitive” or a “that – clause” for example,
We use “its” before a noun to express the possession. For example, I have forgotten its number.
“It’s” shows the short form of “it is” or “it has”. For example, I think it’s (it is) time to sleep now.