Personal pronouns
A personal pronoun is a type of noun. The fact that the word ‘noun’ is part of the word ‘pronoun’ should give that away! Personal pronouns are used to represent a specific person or thing. But they are different to nouns because they change form depending on four characteristics of the person or thing they’re describing:
the gender of the thing,
the number of things,
the person of the thing, and
the case of the thing.
To show how gender affects what the pronoun looks like, take this example:
He kicked the ball (refers to a male).
She kicked the ball (refers to a female).
It kicked the ball (refers to a thing with no gender).
Whether the thing being represented by the pronoun is singular or plural also affects what the noun looks like. Take these sentences, for example:
He kicked the ball (refers to one person).
She kicked the ball (refers to one person).
They kicked the ball (refers to more than one person).
There are three points of view you can write in - first person, second person and third person. Here are some sentences showing how the pronouns look for each of these persons:
I kicked the ball (first person).
You kicked the ball (second person).
He kicked the ball (third person).
She kicked the ball (third person).
It kicked the ball (third person).
The case of a noun describes whether the noun is the subject of the sentence or the object of the sentence (which means something is happening or being done to it). Here are some pronouns that represent someone or something (the subject of the sentence):
I kicked the ball (‘I’ is the subject)
He kicked the ball (‘He’ is the subject)
You kicked the ball (‘You’ is the subject)
When the pronoun represents the subject of the sentence, it is known as a subjective personal pronoun. But the pronoun can also represent the object of the sentence that is having things done to it, like this:
I kicked it.
In this case, ‘it’ represents the ball, which is the object in this sentence. Why is this the object? Because it’s being kicked, by me! Pronouns that represent the object of the sentence are known as objective personal pronouns.
Click here to move on to the next topic: Possessive personal pronouns