Personal pronouns Definition

• 

• Personal pronouns Definition

  A personal pronoun is a pronoun (a word that functions as and acts as a substitute for a noun
  or nouns) that represents a grammatical person within a sentence. While personal pronouns often do indicate an actual person, they can also refer to animals, inanimate objects, or even intangible concepts. For instance, the word they in the previous sentence is a plural third- person neuter (gender neutral) pronoun representing the words “personal pronouns” as a grammatical person. Here are some other examples:
• “As soon as John comes home, I am going to give him back his hat.”
• “My team lost again. We really stink this year!”
• “He spoke to the boss yesterday and already got her approval.”
  Which personal pronoun is used in each instance varies depending on four grammatical elements: number (singular or plural), person (first, second, or third person), gender (male, female, or neuter/neutral), and case (subjective, objective, or possessive). This shifting of form is called inflection. Quite often, the inflection of a personal pronoun will change within the same sentence.
  There is also a different kind of pronoun called a reflexive pronoun, which is used when the subject of a verb is also the object (receiving the action) of the same verb. For example:
• “He looked at himself in the mirror before he left.”
• “I hurt myself on the playground today.”
  Although not technically considered personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns are so similar in form and use that they have been included in this section.
  We will examine each of these grammatical elements in relation to personal pronouns more in-depth in the sub-sections of this chapter, but here is a quick breakdown of all the personal pronouns and their different inflections.
  
  

  Person	Number	Gender	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Determiner	P P
  First Person	Singular	Masculine/feminine	I	Me	My	M
  First Person	Plural	Masculine/feminine	We	Us	Our	O
  Second Person	Singular/Plural	Masculine/feminine	You	You	Your	Y
  Third Person	Singular	Feminine	She	Her	Her	H

  
  

  Third Person	Singular	Masculine	He	Him	His	H
  Third person	Singular	Neuter	It	It	Its	It
  Third person	Plural*	Neuter (Gender Neutral)	They	Them	Their	T

  s
  
  
  (*See the usage note under “Gender” for information about using they as a singular pronoun.)

  Personal Pronouns - Number Definition

  Grammatical number in English simply means whether something or someone is singular

  or plural—that is, is there one of something or someone (singular), or are there more than one (plural)? This is answered by the pronoun’s antecedent (the word, phrase, clause, etc., that indicates what pronoun should be used, and in what form).
  For nouns, we usually just add an “-s” to the end of the word to signify that it is plural (though there are many exceptions to this). Personal pronouns, however, have specific
  inflections (different forms of the word) depending on whether they are singular or plural. For the most part, only the first-person and third-person personal pronouns have plural forms. The only plural second-person pronoun is the reflexive pronoun yourselves.
  For second-person pronouns that don’t inflect for number, you sometimes have to use information from another part of the sentence or paragraph to determine if it is plural or singular. (See the examples below.)
  Unfortunately, there is no rule to how personal pronouns change when they become plural; you simply have to memorize them. Refer to the table in the chapter overview to learn them.

  Examples:

• “I (first-person singular) am meeting my (first-person singular) writing club this afternoon. We (first-person plural)always meet on Wednesdays after class.”
• “I (first-person singular) really envy you (second-person singular)!”
• “They (third-person plural) can’t tell you (second-person plural) what it will be like; you (second-person plural) will just have to find out for yourselves (second-person plural reflexive).”
• “The main reason Martha is so beautiful is because she (third-person feminine singular)
  is so tall.”

  Quiz

• 1.   Which personal pronouns can be inflected for number? (Choose the answer that is most

  correct.)

  a)   All of them

  b)   First-person and third-person pronouns

  c)   Reflexive pronouns

  d)   Second-person pronouns

  e)   B & C

  
  

  2.   Which of the following sentences has at least one pronoun that is plural? (Choose the answer that is most correct.)

  a)   “I told you that I needed it done by yesterday, Jeff.”

  b)   “She went for a walk by herself.”

  c)   “Don’t take your sister’s toys, or you will make her cry.”

  d)   “I asked all of you here so we could discuss the state of the business.”

  
  

  3.   Which of the following is the plural form of the second-person reflexive pronoun?

  a)   yourselves

  b)   itself

  c)   themselves

  d)   ourselves

  
  
  

  4.   What is the plural form of the first-person possessive pronoun mine?

  a)   our

  b)   my

  c)   ours

  d)   theirs