A personal pronoun is a part of speech that takes the place of proper nouns referring to people or things. Certain personal pronouns can also replace objects, places, and ideas. In English, personal pronouns show the grammatical person, gender, number, and case of the noun or noun phrase they replace.
Personal pronouns fall into one of three points of view.
Point of view | Use | Example |
---|---|---|
First person | Refers to the speaker | I ran down the hall. |
Second person | Refers to the person being spoken to | You ran down the hall. |
Third person | Refers to the person being spoken of | He ran down the hall. |
There are a variety of factors that impact the appropriate type of personal pronoun including number and gender.
Number and gender are determined from the pronoun's antecedent — the word the pronoun replaces later in the sentence.
If a pronoun's antecedent includes only one item, then the pronoun is singular.
She studied all night for the exam.
In the sentence above, the antecedent is one or a singular person, so we have a singular pronoun.
If a pronoun's antecedent includes more than one item, then the pronoun is plural.
They studied all night for the exam.
Here, the antecedent is multiple people, so we use a plural pronoun.
If the antecedent is male, female, or gender-neutral (neuter), we must use the appropriate gender pronouns:
Gender | Example |
---|---|
Male | He opened the door. |
Female | She opened the door. |
Gender neutral (neuter) | They opened the door. |
There are two cases of personal pronouns – subject pronouns (nominative case) and object pronouns (objective case).
Subject pronouns replace the name of the subject in the sentence. Subject pronouns include:
Here is a basic example sentence using a subject pronoun:
We wanted to visit the city.
Object pronouns replace the object in a sentence. Object pronouns include:
An example sentence using an object pronoun is:
My dad will drive us home.
Possessive personal pronouns replace a noun and indicate ownership. A possessive personal pronoun replaces a possessive determiner and a noun (e.g., “your pencil” becomes “yours”).
Possessive personal pronouns include:
Point of view | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
First-person | I, Me | We, Us |
Second-person | You | You |
Third-person | She, Her, He, Him, It, They, Them | They, Them |
Gender | She, Her, Hers, He, Him, His | They, Them |
Subject | I, You, He, She, It | We, They |
Object | Me, You, Her, Him, It | Us, Them |
Possessive | Mine, Yours, His, Hers | Ours, Theirs |
The following sentences include examples of personal pronouns:
First-Person
Second-Person
Third-Person
Gender
Subject
Object
Possessive
Learn about other types of pronouns like possessive pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.
After working your way through this lesson and video, you have learned:
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