Personal pronouns

Personal Pronouns

  • Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I he, she, it, they, we, and you. 
  • Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. They are: me her, him, it, you, them, and us.
  • Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine his, hers, ours, yours, its, and  theirs.
     

SINGULAR

PLURAL
  subjective objective possessive subjective objective possessive
1st person I me my, mine we us our, ours
2nd person you you your, yours you you your, yours
3rd person he
she
it		 him
her
it		 his
her,  hers
its		 they
 		 them their, theirs
 

Subject Pronoun

We use subject pronouns as the subject of a verb:

  • I like your dress.
  • You are late.
  • He is my friend.
  • It is raining.
  • She is on holiday.
  • We live in England.
  • They come from London.

NOTE
English clauses always have a subject.

  • His father has just retired. > He was a teacher. (NOT Was a teacher.)
  • I'm waiting for my wife. > She is late. (NOT Is late.)

The imperative, which is used for orders, invitations and requests, is an exception:

  • Stop!
  • Go away.
  • Please come to dinner tomorrow.
  • Play it again, please.

If there is no other subject, we use it or there. We call this a dummy subject.

  • There's an interesting book on the shelf. (where)
  • There'll be an eclipse of the moon tonight. (when)
  • There is plenty of bread left. (amount)
  • There were twenty people at the meeting. (number)
  • It's nearly one o'clock. (time)
  • It's my birthday. (date)
  • It's raining. (wheather)
  • It's a lovely day. (wheather)
  • It's great living here. (express an opinion)
  • It's nice to meet you. (express an opinion)

Object pronoun

We use object pronouns as the object of a verb:

  • Can you help me, please?
  • I can see you.
  • She doesn't like him.
  • I saw her in town today.
  • We saw them in town yesterday, but they didn't see us.

and after prepositions:

  • She is waiting for me.
  • I'll get it for you.
  • Give it to him.
  • Why are you looking at her?
  • Don't take it from us.
  • I'll speak to them.

he, she and they

We use he/him to refer to men, and she/her to refer to women.
When we are not sure if we are talking about a man or a woman, we use they/them:

  • This is Jack. He's my brother. I don't think you have met him.
  • This is Angela. She's my sister. Have you met her before?
  • You could go to a doctor. They might help you.
  • Talk to a friend. Ask them to help you.

you and they

We use you to talk about people in general, including the speaker and the hearer:

  • You can buy this book everywhere. = This book is on sale everywhere.
  • You can't park here. = Parking is not allowed here.

We use they/them to talk about institutions and organisations:

  • They serve good food here. (they = the restaurant)
  • Ask them for a cheaper ticket. (them = the airline)

especially the government and the authorities:

  • They don't let you smoke in here. 
  • They are going to increase taxes.
  • They are building a new motorway. 
  • They say it’s going to rain tomorrow.

it

We use it to talk about ourselves:

on the telephone:

  • Hello. It's George.

when other people cannot see us:

  • It's me. It's Mary. (Mary is knocking on the door.)


We also use it to talk about other people:

when we point people out for the first time:

  • Look. It's Paul McCartney.
  • Who's that? I think it's John's brother.

when we cannot see someone and we ask them for their name:

  • Hello. Who is it? (someone answering the phone)
  • Who is it? (someone about to answer the door)