by Laura Jones
Published on April 18, 2023
English personal pronouns: A guide for you and me
Personal pronouns are words that we use to refer to people or things without using their proper names. In English, we have subject pronouns and object pronouns, both of which we’re focusing on today. Personal pronouns can stand in for all types of nouns in a sentence.
Common personal pronouns in English are: “I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “we,” “they,” “me,” “you,” “him,” “her,” “it,” “us” and “them.” Let’s learn more about the difference between subject and object pronouns and see some examples of how to use them.
Subject pronouns are pronouns that are used as the subject of a sentence. We use them to replace the name of the person or thing that is performing the action in the sentence. The seven subject pronouns are “I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “we” and “they.” Here are some example sentences:
Object pronouns stand in for the object of a verb or preposition. We use them to replace the name of the person or thing that is receiving the action in the sentence. Some common object pronouns in English include “me,” “you,” “him,” “her,” “it,” “us,” and “them.” Here are some example sentences:
Here is a personal pronouns chart showing the English subject and object pronouns.
| Subject pronoun | Object pronoun | |
| First-person singular | I | me |
| Second-person singular and plural | you | you |
| Third-person singular | he/she/it | him/her/it |
| First-person plural | we | us |
| Third-person plural | they | them |
Gender-neutral pronouns are becoming more common in English. You will often hear one person being referred to as “they” or “them,” which are traditionally plural subject pronouns. Make sure you use the correct form of the verb if you use “they.”
It’salso becoming common to use “they” to avoid identifying someone by gender. This can be especially useful when you don’t know someone’s gender. This is less common in very formal writing.
Lots of English learners are not sure which personal pronoun to use for animals. Generally, we use “it” to talk about animals.
However, if we’re talking about a pet, particularly a dog or cat that we love, we often use “he,” “she,” “him” or “her.”
A common error involves confusing English first-person pronouns. This is a mistake that even native speakers make very often. It involves using “me” instead of “I” or “I” instead of “me.” It usually happens when there is more than one subject or object in a sentence.
Consider the following sentences. The first sentence is incorrect, and the second is correct:
To ensure you don’t make this mistake, just remove the second subject. You’ll immediately notice that the incorrect first-person pronoun sounds weird:
These sentences are clearly incorrect when Sally and Matt are removed.
Do you feel more confident about using personal pronouns now? You can use the English pronouns chart in this article to remember which are the subject pronouns and which are the object pronouns. Remember that subject pronouns can replace the noun that performs the action in a sentence, and object pronouns can replace the noun that receives the action. And don’t make the common mistake of mixing up your first-person pronouns!
