in ,

The English Personal Pronoun System

Pronouns are small words that can take the place of nouns and noun phrases. Personal pronouns are pronouns that take the place of common and proper nouns. The English personal pronoun system includes four types of pronouns: subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessive pronouns, and reflexive pronouns. Pronouns in English can perform six different grammatical functions depending on the type of pronouns: subject, subject complement, direct object, indirect object, prepositional complement, and appositive.

Subject Pronouns

The English subject pronouns perform two functions in sentences: subject and subject complement. The subject pronouns in English are:

  • I (first person singular)
  • you (second person singular)
  • he (third person singular masculine)
  • she (third person singular feminine)
  • it (third person singular neuter)
  • we (first person plural)
  • you (second person plural)
  • they (third person plural and singular)

For example:

  • I am a librarian. (subject)
  • You wrote the book. (subject)
  • We have borrowed some sugar. (subject)
  • This is he. (subject complement)
  • My aunt is she. (subject complement)
  • The tourists are they. (subject complement)

Object Pronouns

The English object pronouns perform three traditional functions: direct object, indirect object, and prepositional complement. The object pronouns in English are:

  • me (first person singular)
  • you (second person singular)
  • him (third person singular masculine)
  • her (third person singular feminine)
  • it (third person singular neuter)
  • us (first person plural)
  • you (second person plural)
  • them (third person plural and singular)

For example:

  • My puppy licked you. (direct object)
  • A librarian will fix it. (direct object)
  • The man bought her chocolate. (indirect object)
  • A hotel worker will give me some fresh towels. (indirect object)
  • Six packages arrived for us. (prepositional complement)
  • The mother cat hunted for food for them. (prepositional complement)

The English object pronouns also function as the subject complement in all but the most formal settings. For example:

  • This is us. (subject complement)
  • It was her. (subject complement)
  • The winners are them. (subject complement)
  • The guest speaker is me. (subject complement)

Prescriptive grammar rules require the use of subject pronouns as subject complements, but English speakers can and do use object pronouns in the function.

Possessive Pronouns

The English possessive pronouns perform five functions: subject, subject complement, direct object, indirect object, and prepositional complement. The possessive pronouns in English are:

  • mine (first person singular)
  • yours (second person singular)
  • his (third person singular masculine)
  • hers (third person singular feminine)
  • its (third person singular neuter)*
  • ours (first person plural)
  • yours (second person plural)
  • theirs (third person plural and singular)

*The third person singular neuter possessive pronoun its is rarely used in standard written English.

For example:

  • Mine is the calico cat. (subject)
  • The middle desk is yours. (subject complement)
  • Our neighbor bought his. (direct object)
  • We bought ours healthy snacks. (indirect object)
  • He can sit at theirs. (prepositional complement)

Do not confuse possessive pronouns with possessive determiners. The possessive determiners in English are my, your, his, her, its, our, their, and whose. Possessive determiners are determiners. Determiners provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and number. Determiners perform the grammatical function of determinative.

For example:

  • My cat is fluffy. (determiner, provides information about cat)
  • Mine is fluffy. (pronoun, replaces the noun phrase my cat)
  • The big one is your package. (determiner, provides information about package)
  • The big one is yours. (pronoun, replaces the noun phrase your package)

Reflexive Pronouns

The English reflexive pronouns perform three functions: direct object, indirect object, and prepositional complement. The reflexive pronouns in English are:

  • myself (first person singular)
  • yourself (second person singular)
  • himself (third person singular masculine)
  • herself (third person singular feminine)
  • itself (third person singular neuter)
  • themself (third person singular gender-neutral)*
  • ourselves (first person plural)
  • yourselves (second person plural)
  • themselves (third person plural)

*The third person singular themself is still considered nonstandard by prescriptive grammar rules, but English speakers can and do use the form.

For example:

  • I embarrassed myself at the party. (direct object)
  • It kept itself warm. (direct object)
  • She wrote herself a note. (indirect object)
  • They packed themself a snack. (indirect object)
  • He chuckled at himself. (prepositional complement)
  • We glanced at ourselves in the mirror. (prepositional complement)

Using Personal Pronouns as Appositives

Personal pronouns may sometimes, although rarely, function as appositives. Subject, object, and possessive, and reflexive pronouns may perform the grammatical function of appositive. For example:

  • That man, he, stole my wallet. (subject pronoun)
  • Those children, him and her, are mine. (object pronouns)
  • A man brought a package for the team leader, you. (object pronoun)
  • The winners are these two cakes, hers and his. (possessive pronouns)
  • You, yourself, must accept the challenge. (reflexive pronoun)
  • He, himself, carved the roast beast. (reflective pronoun)

Personal pronouns are pronouns that take the place of common and proper nouns. Personal pronouns perform six functions in English grammar.

Summary

Personal pronouns in English grammar are words that take the place of common and proper nouns. The antecedents of personal pronouns are previously identified proper and common nouns.

Personal pronoun is a grammatical form.

Personal pronoun is a subcategory of pronoun, which is a subcategory of noun.

Personal pronouns function as the heads of pronoun phrases or noun phrases. The six grammatical functions performed by personal pronouns are subject, subject complement, direct object, indirect object, prepositional complement, and appositive.

The four types of personal pronouns are subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessive pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.

References

Hopper, Paul J. A Short Course in Grammar. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1999.
Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kosur, Heather Marie. 2021. A Form-Function Description of the Grammar of the Modern English Language: Book 1 (Level 7). Rock Pickle Publishing. Kosur, Heather Marie. 2021. A Form-Function Description of the Grammar of the Modern English Language: Book 1 (Level 8). Rock Pickle Publishing.

Black and white text reading "Linguistics Girl The Linguistic Librarian" on a hot pink background.

Grammatical Tense

Evidence for the Death of the English Case System

Evidence for the Death of the English Case System