Definition of Personal Pronoun
Personal pronoun can be defined as “A personal pronoun is a pronoun that is associated primarily with a particular person, in the grammatical sense. When discussing “person” in terms of the grammatical, the following rules apply: First person, as in “I” Second person, as in “you” Third person, as in “It, he, she””.
Explanation
Personal pronoun is a pronoun (use instead of a noun or noun phrase) primarily connected with the particular person in grammatical sense. It takes the place of specific nouns in the sentence (such as names of places, people, things, etc) in order to avoid the repetition of nouns and make easy flow of sentences.
We use them in the sentence when a particular noun is already mentioned. First person can be denoted using “I”, second person using “you” and third person using “It, he, she”.
Personal pronoun can refer to people, animals, or objects. It may take different forms depending on number (plural or singular), gender (feminine, masculine, or neuter), case (we/us), or formality.
Examples
Following are the examples of personal pronouns:
- He is running in the ground. (‘he’ is personal pronoun and used here as third person. ‘he’ is singular and masculine form.)
- We are eating our breakfast in nice manner. (‘we’ is personal pronoun and used here as first person. ‘we’ is plural and neuter form.)
- You need some help. (‘you’ is personal pronoun and used here as second person. ‘you’ is plural and neuter form.)
- I have joined this group. (‘I’ is personal pronoun and used here as first person. ‘I’ is singular and neuter form.)
Types
There are two types of personal pronouns which are discussed below with proper examples:
Subjective Personal Pronoun
Subjective personal pronouns are pronouns that are used as subject of the sentence such as I, he, you, it, she, we, they, etc.
Use of Subjective Personal Pronouns in the Sentence:
Following are sentences with the proper use of subjective personal pronouns:
- I love to learn English and other languages.
- You are my best friend.
- You are looking very happy.
- She is a good singer.
- He never hurts his good friends.
- I like your uniform very much.
- You have been very late.
- He is not my friend
- It is a nice and healthy fruit.
- We have to go there.
- They are playing football together.
- They successfully won the competition.
- It is raining very heavily.
- She is in Shimla on holiday.
- We live in China for many years.
- They came very late in the school.
Objective personal pronouns
Objective personal pronouns are pronouns that are used as object (person or thing) of the sentence or clause such as me, him, you, her, it, us, them, etc. Objective personal pronouns can be used as direct object, indirect object, or object of prepositions.
Use of Objective Personal Pronouns in the Sentence:
Following are sentences with the proper use of objective personal pronouns:
- He was waiting for me.
- I will give nice gift to you.
- I don’t know who is with her.
- I want to marry him.
- I have done it.
- She never tell us about program.
- See the person sitting next to you.
- I can tell them.
- I know her. (in this example, personal pronoun is a direct object.)
- She gave me a letter. (in this example, personal pronoun is an indirect object.)
- He went with him. (in this example, personal pronoun is an object of a preposition.)
Objective personal pronouns are used as the object of the verb such as:
- Can you give me your pen please.
- I will see you.
- She never likes me.
- He saw me in school.
- I saw him in library yesterday, but he did not saw me.
Objective personal pronouns are also used after preposition such as:
- She was buying gift for me.
- She looked straight at me.
- I have a nice gift for you.
- Why she looks at me?
- Don’t take risk to them.
- He is very upset to me.
Possessive Versions of Personal Pronouns
Following are possessive versions of the personal pronouns:
- First Person Singular: (I, me, my, mine)
- Second Person Singular: (you, you, your, yours)
- Third Person Singular: (he/she/it, him/her/it, his/her/its, his/hers/its)
- First Person Plural: (we, us, our, ours)
- Second Person Plural: (you, you, your, yours)
- Third Person Plural: (they, them, their, theirs)
How to Use it in the Sentence
Generally, we make mistakes while selecting which personal pronoun to use in the sentence. Here are some points which help us to select a personal pronoun:
- Number: It is a personal pronoun showing that whether something is singular or plural?
- Person: It is a personal pronoun representing whether something is first person (I, me, we, us, etc), second person (you), or third person (he, she, it, they, etc).
- Gender: It is a personal pronoun representing that something is male, female, or neuter.
- Case: It is a personal pronoun representing that something is a subject or an object.
Exercises for You
We have provided below some exercises in order to help you to improve your knowledge about personal pronoun. You need to get detail information about personal pronoun provided above and check your skill by doing following exercises.
Choose correct personal pronouns (subjective or objective) from the following sentences given below and match with the given answer:
- I love reading books.
- I want you to win in the next competition.
- You are my dear brother.
- He asked to me about exam.
- He is very cute and attractive.
- I give it to her as she is my best friend.
- She is ready to go to school.
- It is a harmful insect.
- I have made it very precious.
- I wish them a nice journey.
- We are very upset.
- I can give my notes to you only.
- They are good football player.
- He gave us much credit for the nice arrangement.
- He looked at him very angrily.
Answers: 1 – subjective personal pronoun, 2 – objective personal pronoun, 3 – subjective personal pronoun, 4 – objective personal pronoun, 5 – subjective personal pronoun, 6 – objective personal pronoun, 7 – subjective personal pronoun, 8 – subjective personal pronoun, 9 – objective personal pronoun, 10 – objective personal pronoun, 11 – subjective personal pronoun, 12 – objective personal pronoun, 13 – subjective personal pronoun, 14 – objective personal pronoun, 15 – objective personal pronoun.
Related Information:
Pronoun
Possessive Pronoun
Compound Personal Pronoun
Demonstrative Pronoun
Indefinite Pronoun
Distributive Pronoun
Reciprocal Pronoun
Relative Pronoun
Interrogative Pronoun