1. Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to people with one exception: it. The third person pronoun it  although included in personal pronouns does not refer to a person; it usually refers to an animal or a thing. Personal pronouns are best explained by the table that follows.

  Singular Plural
  Subject Object Subject Object
First Person I Me We Us
Second Person You You You You
Third Person He
She
It 		Him Her It They They They Them Them Them

What is shown in the table above is that personal pronouns have person , number , gender  and case . The personal pronoun must be of the same number, gender, person, and in the same case as the noun for which it represents.

Number

Each personal pronoun is singular or plural in number : singular ( I , me , you , he , him , she , her , it ) or plural ( we , us , you , they , them ). The pronoun must agree in number with the noun that it replaces. If the noun is in the singular number, the pronoun must also be in the singular number, or if it is of the plural number, the pronoun must be of the plural number.

Examples:

  • Singular : The boy   is playing with his puppet.  He  has a glove puppet..
  • Plural : The boys  are playing with their puppets. They  have glove puppets.

Person

Personal pronouns have three grammatical persons : first-person (singular: I, me / plural: we , us ); second-person (singular: you / plural: you ) or third-person: (singular: she , her , he , him , it / plural: they , them ).

Examples:

  • First person : I  hate waking up in the morning.
  • Second person : You  should not have stepped on it.
  • Third person : It  is a rare species of fish.

Gender

First-person and second-person personal pronouns do not show gender . Only third-persons have gender: (masculine: he / feminine: she / neuter: it ). The pronoun must agree with the noun in gender that it represents. If the noun is in the feminine gender, the pronoun too must be in the feminine gender. Likewise, if the noun is in the masculine gender, the pronoun must be in the masculine gender.

Examples:

  • Masculine : Jill has a  boyfriend . He   comes across as a bit of a bore to her.
  • Feminine : John’s sister  loves to eat pizza. She  eats it almost every day.
  • Neuter : We have an old kitchen table . It  has a broken leg.

Case

There are three cases of pronouns in English grammar: subjective, objective, and possessive.

A subjective pronoun is in the subjective case when it is used as the subject of the sentence. The personal pronouns that can be used as subjects are I , you , he , she , it , we , and they .

An object or objective pronoun is in the objective case when it is used as a direct object, an indirect object, or an object of the preposition. The personal pronouns that can be used as objects are me , you , him , her , it, us , them .

Possessive case when it is used to show possession - ownership of an object. Personal pronouns of possession - ownership are mine , yours , his , hers , its , ours , and theirs .

For more on case, see case  in glossary.

Examples:

The subjects of the sentences are shown in bold.

  • Tom  rides a pony..
  • He  rides a pony.
  • The prisoners  cut the stone into blocks..
  • They  cut the stone into blocks.

The objects in the sentences are shown in bold.

  • My uncle likes her .
  • We hate them .
  • He scolded him  and me .