What are personal pronouns?
A noun is a word that is person, place or thing.
e.g. Brian, the car, the dog, Sunita, London
A pronoun is a word that can be used in place of a noun.
A personal pronoun is used in place of a noun that is a person or a thing.
Personal pronouns for people =I, you, he, she, we, they
me, you, him, her, us, themPersonal pronouns for things =it, they, them
Why use a personal pronoun?
Personal pronouns are useful because you don't have to repeat words.
They can be used to talk about something or someone that you have already talked about.
e.g. Elizabeth put the coat on because Elizabeth was cold.
This would be better written as:
Elizabeth put the coat on because she was cold.
The word she is a personal pronoun and means 'Elizabeth' in this sentence.
This makes the sentence shorter and more interesting, as you don't have to repeat 'Elizabeth'.
There are two types of personal pronouns:
- Subject pronouns are the 'who' or 'what' the sentence is about:
I, you, he, she, it, we, they are all subject pronouns - Object pronouns are the 'who' or what' acted upon:
me, you, him, her, it, us, them are all object pronouns
e.g. Elizabeth put the coat on.
In this sentence 'Elizabeth' is the subject and 'the coat' is the object.
Elizabeth is doing the action (putting on) and the coat is the thing that is 'done to' (it is the thing that she puts on).
If you wanted to repeat this information later you could say:
She put it on.
Problems with personal pronouns
Remember that personal pronouns are small words that you can use to replace a person or thing, when you have already talked about them.
e.g. Barry loves Nathalie. He (Barry) is always buying her (Nathalie) presents.
Singular or plural?
- The singular (talking about 1 thing) personal pronouns are:
I / me. he / him. she / her. it. you - The plural (talking about more than 1) personal pronouns are:
we / us. they / them. you
Singular personal pronouns are used to replace singular nouns (one person or thing).
Plural personal pronouns are used to replace plural nouns (many people or things).
NOTE - 'You' can be used to replace one person or many people, it is both singular and plural.
Should it be 'I' or 'me'?
These personal pronouns are often used in the wrong place. Think about whether the personal pronoun is the subject or the object.
Is it 'I' doing something or 'me' being acted upon?
e.g. John and I are going there.
Please give the money to me.
A good trick for working out which one to use is to say the sentence to yourself with the other person taken out.
e.g. John and I are going to the cinema.
Take out 'John' and what do you get? You get 'I am going to the cinema' - which is right. If you said 'Me are going to the cinema' you can hear that it is wrong.
