Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns

Question

What are personal pronouns?

Definition

A personal pronoun is a short word we use as a simple substitute for the proper name of a person. Each of the English personal pronouns shows us the grammatical person, gender, number, and case of the noun it replaces.

First-, Second-, and Third-Person Pronouns

A personal pronoun can be in one of three “persons.” A first-person pronoun refers to the speaker, a second-person pronoun refers to the person being spoken to, and a third-person pronoun refers to the person being spoken of. For each of these three grammatical persons, there is a plural as well.

Subject and Object Pronouns

Personal pronouns can be either subjects or objects in a sentence. Subject pronouns are said to be in the nominative case, whereas object pronouns are said to be in the objective case.

PersonNominativeObjectiveFirst singularImeSecond singularyouyouThird singularhe, she, ithim, her, itFirst pluralweusSecond pluralyouyouThird pluraltheythem

Personal pronouns are:

I, you, he, she, it, we they, me, him, her, us

Examples

Mrs. Khan asked that the package be delivered to her at the office. (her = third person singular objective)To whom should I address my letter? (whom = interrogative objective; I = first person singular nominative)

We would like to invite Stacy to join us for dinner. (we = first person plural nominative; us = first person plural objective)