The following are the different forms for personal pronouns in English:
| person | subject | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | I | me |
| 2nd | you | you |
| 3rd | it, he, she | it, him, her |
| 1st plural | we | us |
| 3rd plural | they | them |
Use of the subject pronoun
Subject pronouns reflect the nouns they replace. Since English nouns rarely show gender, the pronouns "he" and "she" are generally used only for people or animals; in the case of s or impersonal expressions, the pronoun "it" will be used.
Examples:
- She wants to eat.
- You look tired.
-
It is hard to cook well.
Use of predicate pronouns:
Predicate pronouns will always have the same form whether they are used as direct, indirect, or prepositional s. The forms are: "me", "you", "it", "him", "her", "us", "them."
Whatever the form of the sentence (affirmative, negative, interrogative), direct s — or the pronouns replacing them — will follow the verb:
- Did you buy it?
- You didn"t buy it.
- You bought it.
Prepositional s will come after their preposition:
- Will you come to the store with me?
- He left without her.
Indirect s will generally come after the proposition "to," except if the pronoun precedes the direct , in which cas the proposition "to" disappears:
- I have spoken to her.
- I gave this present to them.
- But: I gave them this present.
Order of pronouns
When a verb is followed by two or more pronouns, the following sequence is observed:
| subject | verb | indirect | prep. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| He | gave | it | to me | for Christmas |
Examples:
- Don"t tell that to him.
- He couldn"t sell the car to them.
Exception: As noted above, one may omit the preposition "to" in front of an indirect , in which cas the indirect pronoun precedes the direct :
- He gave me it for Christmas.
- Don"t tell him that.
- He couldn"t sell them the car.