Hey, today we’ll be talking about personal pronouns in English. These are pronouns that we use a lot in everyday conversation and in written language. Actually, it’s hard to imagine any text or piece of speech of any kind without personal pronouns. So, let’s have a look at them in more detail.
Table of Contents
RIDDLE SOLUTION
But before we dive into personal pronouns, let’s go back to my previous article for a while. There was a riddle for you to answer. I showed you an image and asked what it was. Here’s the image again:
And here’s the solution. I think it wasn’t hard to guess that these are bacteria. But to be more precise, it’s a model of bacteria that I made in Blender.
If you want to learn how to make such a model in Blender, feel free to read my step-by-step tutorial.
And now let’s get back to our topic.
A personal pronoun is a word that represents a noun phrase in a sentence. It’s used in order to avoid repeating the whole noun phrase or part of it. Have a look at this example:
Alice and her dog spend a lot of time together.
Alice and her dog like sitting by the lake.
Alice and her dog’s neighbor likes Alice and her dog very much.
So, here we have three sentences about Alice and her dog. But it doesn’t sound good if we repeat the whole noun phrase each time. The first sentence creates a context and in the following sentences we can replace the noun phrase by personal pronouns. Look at this, doesn’t it sound much better?
Alice and her dog spend a lot of time together.
They like sitting by the lake.
Their neighbor likes them very much.
As you can see, we use different pronoun forms. This is because personal pronouns are inflected. They can be inflected by number, person, gender and case.
Let’s have a look at these inflections one by one. But before that…
Let’s take a break…
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Inflection by number
Personal pronouns can be singular or plural. Have a look:
– I often play with my friends.
– Benny, do you like playing with us?
– He can’t hear you.
– What about you, Sara?
– She is not here, can’t you see?
– Oh no, help me with my tire, it’s rolling too fast.
– Mine is also rolling too fast!
Here I, YOU, HE, SHE, ME, MY, IT and MINE and are singular forms of pronouns.
And now some examples of plural forms:
– Sara, where are you? Come play with us.
– I don’t like playing with you.
– Why? Aren’t we your best friends? Don’t you like our company?
– I only like Mike and Steve. They’re always nice to me.
– So go play with them. We’re not going to ask you again.
– Oh, sorry I was rude. Your company is as good as theirs.
Here US, YOU, WE, OUR, THEY, THEM and THEIRS are the plural forms.
Inflection by person
There are separate forms of personal pronouns for each person and there are three persons: first person, second person and third person. Let’s have a look at them now.
– I’m really glad we’re going to work together.
– It’s always been my dream.
…I like her. Maybe she likes me too.
– So, our team is now complete. We can get down to work.
– Your previous company wasn’t bad, but ours is better, you’ll see.
– Here I, MY, ME and OURS are personal pronouns used in the first person singular and plural.
WE and OUR are used in the first person plural.
Let’s move on to the second person.
– Will you tell me, guys, what exactly I’m supposed to do?
– I will tell you everything. You can count on me.
– Thanks for your readiness to help.
…I would do anything for you, cutie pie.
– You can take my desk, it’s now yours.
YOU, YOUR and YOURS are pronouns used in the second person, both singular and plural.
And finally, the third person.
…She’s so cute. I really like her. She can use my laptop. I’ll give it to her.
…Oh no, he’s younger and handsomer than me. She’s going to pick him, not me.
…I have a nice smile, but I think he likes hers better.
…Why are they all smiling at me? I don’t like their smiles. And now I must work with them.
…But the guy on the right. I sort of like him. He looks old and mature.
Here we can see personal pronouns in the third person singular (SHE, HER, IT, HE, HIM, HERS) and plural (THEY, THEIR, THEM).
Inflection by gender
Personal pronouns are also inflected by gender. There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Here the differences are only visible in third person singular. In all other cases there’s just one common form for all genders.
So, in third person singular we use the following forms:
HE, HIM, HIS – in masculine gender.
SHE, HER, HERS – in feminine gender.
IT, ITS – in neuter gender.
Some examples:
She’s shaking her hand.
Her hand hurts.
Hers doesn’t hurt.
He wants to ask her out.
His laptop wasn’t cheap.
Her laptop was cheaper. She only paid $200 for it.
Sometimes we also use THEY in singular. I have another article about singular THEY, so feel free to check it out.
Inflection by case
Finally, the last criterion by which personal pronouns are inflected, case. There are three cases: subjective, objective and possessive.
We use subjective case when the pronoun is used as the subject. Have a look:
He is an excellent father.
She is an excellent mother.
– Yes, I am an excellent mother.
– Yes, honey, you are. We are both excellent parents.
– They only talk about how excellent parents they are. It’s so boring!
We use objective case when the pronoun is used as an object.
He met her on a trip.
She fell in love with him.
– I love you so much.
– Yes, I know how much you love me.
– Hey, son, come play with us!
– Why not, I love playing with you.
We use possessive case when the pronoun replaces a genitive form. There are two forms of personal pronouns in possessive case: possessive determiners, which always precede a noun phrase, and possessive pronouns, which are used on their own. We’re going to discuss the difference in a separate article.
Their son is three years old.
Her husband is very brave.
– My husband is a soldier.
– Maybe one day our son will become a soldier too.
– Is this your wish, dad?
– It must be your decision, son, not mine.
INFO
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QUIZ
And now I have an exercise for you. Here’s a quiz on personal pronouns.
