Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them depending on:

number: singular (eg: I) or plural (eg: we)

 person: 1st person (eg: I), 2nd person (eg: you) or 3rd person (eg: he)

 gender: male (eg: he), female (eg: she) or neuter (eg: it)  case: subject (eg: we) or object (eg: us)

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We use personal pronouns in place of the person or people that we are talking about. My name is Josef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use \"I\" or \"me\you, I almost always use \"you\about another person, say John, I may start with \"John\" but then use \"he\" or \"him\". And so on.

Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences:

personal pronouns number person gender 1st 2nd singular 3rd male/female male/female male female neuter 1st plural 2nd 3rd male/female male/female subject I you he she it we you object me you him her it us you them male/female/neuter they Examples (in each case, the first example shows a subject pronoun, the second an object pronoun):



I like coffee.

 

John helped me.

Do you like coffee?  John loves you. He runs fast.

 Did Ram beat him?



She is clever.

 Does Mary know her?



It doesn't work.

 Can the engineer repair it?



We went home.  Anthony drove us.



Do you need a table for three?

 Did John and Mary beat you at doubles?



They played doubles.

 John and Mary beat them.

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When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it. However, there are a few exceptions. We may sometimes refer to an animal as he/him or she/her, especially if the animal is

domesticated or a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as some countries are often treated as female and referred to as she/her. Here are some examples:

This is our dog Rusty. He's an Alsation.

 The Titanic was a great ship but she sank on her first voyage.  My first car was a Mini and I treated her like my wife.  Thailand has now opened her border with Cambodia.

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For a single person, sometimes we don't know whether to use he or she. There are several solutions to this:

If a teacher needs help, he or she should see the principal.  If a teacher needs help, he should see the principal.  If a teacher needs help, they should see the principal.

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We often use it to introduce a remark: It is nice to have a holiday sometimes.  It is important to dress well.  It's difficult to find a job.

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Is it normal to see them together?  It didn't take long to walk here.

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We also often use it to talk about the weather, temperature, time and distance:

It's raining.

 It will probably be hot tomorrow.  Is it nine o'clock yet?

 It's 50 kilometres from here to Cambridge.

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