Personal Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. The English personal pronouns are:

	Singular	Plural
First Person	I	we
Second Person	you	you
Third Person	he, she, it	they

Notice that you is both singular and plural. When speaking to one person, say you. When speaking to two or more persons, say you:

• Tim, you are a very good student.
• Bruno and Rene, you have to study more.

Just as nouns have gender, pronouns also do. I, we, and you can be used by males or females. He is always masculine, she is always feminine, and it is always neuter. The plural of the third-person pronouns is always they, whether masculine, feminine, or neuter. And just like nouns, pronouns can be used as:

1. the subject of a sentence
2. a direct object
3. an indirect object

But when used as a direct object or indirect object, some of the pronouns change:

Subject	Direct Object	Indirect Object
I	me	me
you	you	you
he	him	him
she	her	her
it	it	it
we	us	us
you (plural)	you	you
they	them	them

If a pronoun replaces a noun in the sentence, it must have the same characteristics as the noun: the same number (singular or plural), the same gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter), and the same use in the sentence (subject, direct object, or indirect object). Look at these examples where the pronoun replaces the italicized noun:

Joseph is a hard worker. (singular masculine noun/subject)	He is a hard worker. (singular masculine pronoun/subject)
Do you know the girls? (plural noun/direct object)	Do you know them? (plural pronoun/direct object)
We gave Mrs. Jones some flowers. (singular feminine noun/indirect object)	We gave her some flowers. (singular feminine pronoun/ indirect object)

Notice that the nouns and pronouns are in the third person. This is true when a pronoun replaces a noun. But when a noun or pronoun is combined with the first-person singular pronoun I, it is replaced by the first-person plural pronoun we:

• You and I have work to do. ➞ We have work to do.
• He helps the girls and me. ➞ He helps us.

When you change a direct object noun to a direct object pronoun, you must add to or for before the indirect object noun or pronoun. The indirect object becomes the object of the preposition to or for. Place the prepositional phrase after the direct object. For example:

• I gave Jay a book. ➞ I gave it to Jay.
• We buy her flowers. ➞ We buy them for her.

Nouns or pronouns can be used to complete a prepositional phrase. That is a phrase made up of a preposition and a noun or a pronoun. Here are some of the most commonly used prepositions:

• after, behind, between, for, from, in, near, on, of, through, to, with, without

Look at these sample prepositional phrases:

after the concert	behind me
between the girls	for you
from a friend	in him
near the city	on it
of a book	through her
to a student	with us
without the money	without them

In a prepositional phrase, use the same form of the pronoun that is used as a direct or indirect object:

Subject Pronoun	Direct or Indirect Object	Prepositional Phrase
I	me	after me
you	you	behind you
he	him	for him
she	her	from her
it	it	in it
we	us	between us
they	them	near them