Did you notice the word you in the table is used in both singular AND plural forms? Some English speakers use another informal pronoun when they are talking to a group of people. In the US these informal second person plural pronouns are mostly: you all, y’all, you guys, you lot, or even yous(e). Have you heard someone use any of those before?
English Articles
What are English personal pronouns?
By: Annie Lopes Fri Sep 13 2024
EnglishPronouns
Personal pronouns are words that point back to a noun or replace a noun. Remember, a noun is a word for a person, a place, an object, or even an idea.
In English, nouns do a lot of hard work! Let’s look at how we can give them a rest by replacing them with pronouns:
When I am talking about my dog, it might get boring if I say:
My dog is big. My dog likes treats. My dog is my best friend.
Let’s give that poor dog a break! 😉
To avoid repetition, we can use a personal pronoun in place of the noun phraseNo definition set for noun phraseLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. my dog. For example:
Personal pronoun
My dog is big. He likes treats. He is my best friend.
In this article, we will first introduce the idea of personal pronouns and then we will look at the subject pronouns and object pronouns in English. Let’s dive right in!
Table of Contents
What are subject pronouns in English?
A subject pronoun replaces a noun that is the subjectNo definition set for subjectLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. of a sentence. This means subject pronouns usually point to the person or thing that did the action.
Patricia is buying flour. She will make bread.
→ Patricia is doing the action (making bread), so she is a subject pronoun.
Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
First person Point to the person or people who are talking | I  | we  |
Second person Point to the person or people you are talking to | you  | you  |
Third person Point to person, people, or things you are talking about | he, she, it, they  | they  |
Personal pronouns are split based on how many people or things you are referring to:
Singular personal pronouns point to one person or thing.
Plural personal pronouns point to more than one person or thing.
Personal pronouns are also split based on who is doing what in the conversation:
First person pronouns point to the person who is talking.
Second person pronouns point to the people who you are talking to.
Third person pronouns point to people or things that you are talking about.
Some personal pronouns (he/she/it) are also split based on gender. We’ll talk about this lower down.
Tip
Examples of singular personal pronouns in a sentence
Examples of plural personal pronouns in a sentence
How to use ‘he,’ ‘she,’ and ‘it’ in English?
We use the pronouns he, she, and it to refer to one thing or person that is not part of the conversation. We use he and she for people or animals, and it for objects or ideas. You can use it for an animal, but never for a person.
To use he and she correctly, though, we need to know the gender (male or female) of the person we are referring to.
She = feminine = for female people or animals
He= masculine = for male people or animals
Let’s look:
- femalemale
Patricia is buying flour. She will make bread.
Liam is buying eggs. He will make an omelet.
My dog is swimming. She will be tired later.
We know that Patricia and my dog are female, because you use she. We know that Liam is male, because you use he.
Exception!
You will often hear English speakers call boats she. You can either use she or it to talk about boats, but people generally do not use he.
English speakers will also occasionally use he or she to refer to other objects like toys, cars, or plants. When we do this, we are pretending that those objects are alive or have feelings.
We only use it to refer to non-human things or things that are not alive (like a book, or sometimes an animal!).
We had sushi for dinner, and it was delicious!
I saw a bee but it didn’t sting me.
We know that sushi is not a person, and so you use it.
What is singular ‘they’ in English?
In English, we sometimes use they to refer to just one person if we do not know that person’s gender. However, you can usually use the longer phrase he or she instead. Here is how to decide whether to use a phrase like he or she or they:
When speaking, most people will use they to refer to a person who is 100% unknown.
Somebody left a backpack here, I hope they find it!
To refer to a person who you know a little bit about, some people will use he or she instead.
You have an older sibling, right? How old is he or she?
However, these days many people will still use they:
You have an older sibling, right? How old are they?
This is a newer usage of singular they.
In writing, some people will only accept he or she (or even just he) for all of the examples above, but they is now the standard in most style guides.
Singular they is also the most common pronoun in English for someone who is non-binary or genderfluid.
Can you leave out a subject pronoun in English?
In English, we almost always include the subject pronoun! In many other languages, you can drop the subject pronouns in a sentence, but not in English.
✅ They are going to the mall.
❌ Are going to the mall.
Even when a sentence doesn’t really have a subject, we still include a pronoun
✅ It is raining.
❌ Is raining.
This it is called “expletive it” or “empty it” and you can learn more from our post on empty it in English!
Exception!
This “rule” in English can sometimes be broken. We often do not use subject pronouns in SMS messages or in very fast casual speech. However, most English speakers will say this is “not correct.”
Coming home now!
(= I am coming home now)
There are a few places where you never need to use a subject pronoun. In these cases, English speakers will say it is “correct” without a subject pronoun.The most common place is when a single sentence has two subjects and the two subjects are the same person. This often happens in subordinate clausesNo definition set for subordinate clausesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum..
👉 Peter wanted ice cream all day, but (he) went home without any.
In this example, the sentence has two subjects: Peter and he. Because they are the same person, we do not need to use the subject pronoun he.
What are object pronouns in English?
Object pronouns are personal pronouns that replace a noun that is not the subject of a sentence. For example:
subjectobject pronoun
Sarah saw John → Sarah saw him.
Mark gave Lucy the book. → Lia gave her the book.
We watched the movie with Linda. → We watched the movie with her.
Let’s take a look at all of the subject and object pronouns together in a simple chart:
Subject pronouns | Object pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|---|
singular | first person | I | me |
second person | you | you | |
third person | he, she, it | him, her, it | |
plural | first person | we | us |
second person | you | you | |
third person | they | them |
Tip
Did you notice that the subject and object versions of it and you are the same? You is particularly nice, because it’s also the same in the singular and plural forms!
When to use an object pronoun?
Use an object pronoun to replace a noun that is not the subject of the sentence. Here are the three main places where you will use an object pronoun.
We use object pronouns for direct objects (a noun that directly undergoes the action):
Alex poked him on the shoulder.
→ Who did Alex poke? Him! Therefore, him is a direct object)We use object pronouns for indirect objects (a noun that receives something or benefits from the action, but who does not directly undergo the action):
Sandy brought me a treat yesterday.
→ Who is receiving a treat? Me! Therefore, “me” is an indirect object)We use object pronouns after prepositions:
prepositionSally walked away from me, toward you.
Tip
Some languages use different pronouns to refer to direct objects and indirect objects. Other languages use different pronouns after different prepositions. In English, it is much easier! All pronouns that are not subject pronouns are object pronouns!
Should I say ‘you and I’ or ‘you and me’?
Sometimes in English, when we are choosing between me or I, it can get a little tricky! This can happen when we are deciding between using the phrase “you and me” or “you and I.”
Try my quick test to see which you should use: Remove the second person pronoun (“you”) and check if your sentence still makes sense! Let’s try an example. What do you think of this sentence?
She will ride with you and I to the party.
Let’s try the test! Delete you and…
❌ She will ride with I to the party.
We know that ❌ with I is incorrect because with is a preposition, and we use object pronouns (me) after prepositions, not subject pronouns (I). Instead we should say: ✅ with me.
So the whole sentence should read:
✅ She will ride with you and me to the party.
In summary…
In this post, we covered the English personal pronouns and told you about subject and object pronouns.
Subject pronouns:I, you, he, she, it, we, they
Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them
You can look back at the table above to review!
Remember:
We use the subject pronouns to replace the subject (the noun before the verb).
We use the object pronouns to replace a noun that is not the subject.
Before you leave, why don’t you see what you’ve learned here by trying these English personal pronoun activities? A key is included so you can check your work. Or, review the personal pronouns with this downloadable pronoun chart. Happy learning!
