Grammar Explanation

• Sarah is from England, and Sarah is 18 years old. Sarah studies History at university and, when Sarah is not studying, Sarah likes to dance and ice skate.

Reading that over feels a bit odd, doesn’t it? Do we really need to trot out ‘Sarah‘ so many times? Absolutely not! Let’s give it a spruce-up with a pronoun instead:

• Sarah is from England, and she is 18 years old. She studies History at university and, when she is not studying, she likes to dance and ice skate.

Ah, much smoother, isn’t it? That’s because we’ve swapped out ‘Sarah’ for the trusty pronoun ‘she’.

Personal Pronouns

Now, ‘she’ is just one example of a personal pronoun. Let’s have a gander at a few more:

As you can see from the table, we’ve got two main types of personal pronouns in English – subject pronouns and object pronouns. Let’s delve into each type a bit deeper…

	Subject		Object
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person	I	we	me	us
2nd person	you	you	you	you
3rd person	he/ she/ it	they	he/ she/ it	them

Subject Pronouns

These little fellows replace nouns that are the subject of the sentence – you know, what the sentence is all about. They can be in:

• 1st person (that’s the person speaking)
• 2nd person (the one being spoken to)
• 3rd person (the one being spoken about)
• Plus, they can be singular (just one person or thing) or plural (more than one). Check out these examples:

I am going to see my mother -> Instead of my own name, I’m using ‘I’. Using my name here would sound downright peculiar!

• My sister and I are going to see my mother -> We are going to see my mother -> ‘We‘ steps in for ‘My sister and I‘, making it plural – more than one person.
• You are my best friend -> I’m addressing my pal, so I’m using ‘you‘. If I used their name, it’d be a muddle!
• You are my best friends -> ‘You‘ can also be plural. In this case, since I’m talking about friends, it’s clear I’m addressing more than one person. Using their names here would be a right mess!
• My sister is a football whiz. She scores loads of goals -> Here, we’re talking about someone, so ‘she‘, a 3rd person pronoun, fits the bill. But to use a 3rd person pronoun, you’ve got to be clear who or what you’re talking about. I mentioned my sister earlier, so when I use ‘she‘ here, it’s crystal who I’m on about.
• My dog is adorable. It‘s large and brown -> The 3rd person pronoun ‘it‘ does the job when we’re talking about things. But again, we can only use ‘it‘ when it’s clear who or what we’re referring to. Here, ‘my dog‘ popped up earlier, so it’s plain as day ‘it‘ refers to the dog.
• My folks aren’t home. They‘ve popped to the shops -> ‘They‘ is a plural pronoun used to talk about more than one person or thing. In this case, it’s taking the place of ‘folks‘. Again, for clarity, this pronoun only flies when it’s obvious from the context who it’s pointing to.

Object Pronouns

Now, object pronouns take the place of nouns that aren’t the main focus of the sentence – you know, they’re just along for the ride. Check out these examples and spot the difference between the right and wrong versions:

• My nephew lobbed a ball at I -> Nope, this is a no-go. ‘I’ is a subject pronoun, and ‘my nephew’ is the subject.
  My nephew lobbed the ball at me -> Spot on. Now we’ve got the object pronoun ‘me’ doing its thing.
• I lobbed the ball back at he -> Wrong-o, ‘he’ is a subject pronoun. Here, ‘I’ is the subject.
  I lobbed the ball back at him -> Bang on. ‘Him’ is an object pronoun.
• My father was peeved at we for chucking a ball in the house -> Uh-uh, this won’t do. ‘We’ is plural, but it’s a subject pronoun.
  My father was peeved at us for chucking a ball in the house -> That’s the ticket. ‘Us’ is an object pronoun.
• I popped in to see my grandparents. I brought they some bread that my mother had made -> Nope, ‘they’ is a subject pronoun. And in this sentence, ‘I’ is the subject.
  I popped in to see my grandparents. I brought them some bread that my mother had made -> Right as rain. ‘Them’ is a plural object pronoun, fitting like a glove.