Personal Pronouns – Concept and Its Uses

Personal pronouns are used to refer to people,animals and objects.

Personal pronouns replace a noun or nouns.

The use of personal pronouns depend on:

Person: first person (e.g., I), second person (e.g., you)or third person (e.g., he)

Number: singular (e.g., I) or plural (e.g., we)

Case: subject (e.g., we) or object (e.g., us)

Gender: male (e.g., he), female (e.g., she) or neuter (e.g., it)

First, second, and third person personal pronouns 

A personal pronoun belongs to any of the three persons. 

First person pronoun refers to the speaker, second person refers to the person to whom the speaker speaks, and third person refers to the person about whom the speaker speaks. 

For example: I am studying in grade 3. 

You are dancing gracefully. 

He is my friend. 

Singular and plural personal pronouns. 

Personal pronouns take different forms depending on the number it represents. 

Singular personal pronouns refer to one person, whereas plural personal pronouns refer to multiple persons. 

For example: I am eating a sandwich. 

We are eating a sandwich. 

Subject and object personal pronouns 

A subject pronoun usually comes at the beginning of a sentence and does the action in the sentence. 

I, you, he, she, it, we, and they are subject pronouns. 

For example: 

Maria is a doctor.  

It can be written as: She is a doctor. 

An object pronoun is the receiver of the action. 

Me, you, him, her, it, us, and them are object pronouns. 

For example:   

Stella gave Ben a pen. 

It can be written as: Stella gave him a pen. 

Gender-specific and gender-neutral personal pronouns 

In the third person, we use he to refer to males and she to refer to females.When the third person singular is not known or is neutral, “they” is used. 

For example:  

• George couldn’t attend the class. He didn’t reach on time. 

• The new students submitted the work even though they didn’t attend many classes.