English Personal Pronouns - Before we, teachers of English, could help our students understand English personal pronouns appropriately, we ourselves should first understand well everything about English personal pronouns. If we don't have very good understanding about this subject, it's impossible for us to help our students learn this material. In this article I will discuss important things we should know about English personal pronouns. I believe all of you, English teachers, have understood this material very well. Therefore, let's treat this article as additional reading.
Scope of Discussion
In this article I will discuss only some (not all) aspects of English personal pronouns. They include personal pronoun definition, personal pronoun list, personal pronoun function, and personal pronoun reference. For the sake of clarity, I'll try to add personal pronoun examples in sentences. Of course, if after reading through this article you still don't get it well, you are recommended to ask some questions in the comment box.
Well, here we go
Definition of Personal Pronoun
Basically, pronoun is defined as the words in English which can be used to replace nouns whose identity is made clear earlier in the text. Departing from this definition, we can define personal pronoun as words which can replace nouns of persons.
Personal Pronoun List
Generally, there are seven personal pronouns in English. They are I, You, They, We, He, She, It.
Personal Pronoun Reference
Since personal pronouns stand for nouns of person, they can be distinguised by person. First person refers to the speaker(s) or writer(s) ("I" for singular, "we" for plural). Second person refers to the person or people being spoken or written to ("you" for both singular and plural). Third person refers to the person or people being spoken or written about ("he," "she," and "it" for singular, "they" for plural).
Personal Pronoun Functions
In a sentence, personal pronouns may have four different functions. They are as subject, object, adjective, and possessive. Unlike English nouns, which usually do not change form except for the addition of an -s ending to create the plural or the apostrophe + s to create the possessive, personal pronouns (which stand for persons or things) change form according to their various uses within a sentence. The following is the list of personal pronoun functions and their forms:
Scope of Discussion
In this article I will discuss only some (not all) aspects of English personal pronouns. They include personal pronoun definition, personal pronoun list, personal pronoun function, and personal pronoun reference. For the sake of clarity, I'll try to add personal pronoun examples in sentences. Of course, if after reading through this article you still don't get it well, you are recommended to ask some questions in the comment box.
Well, here we go
Definition of Personal Pronoun
Basically, pronoun is defined as the words in English which can be used to replace nouns whose identity is made clear earlier in the text. Departing from this definition, we can define personal pronoun as words which can replace nouns of persons.
Personal Pronoun List
Generally, there are seven personal pronouns in English. They are I, You, They, We, He, She, It.
Personal Pronoun Reference
Since personal pronouns stand for nouns of person, they can be distinguised by person. First person refers to the speaker(s) or writer(s) ("I" for singular, "we" for plural). Second person refers to the person or people being spoken or written to ("you" for both singular and plural). Third person refers to the person or people being spoken or written about ("he," "she," and "it" for singular, "they" for plural).
Personal Pronoun Functions
In a sentence, personal pronouns may have four different functions. They are as subject, object, adjective, and possessive. Unlike English nouns, which usually do not change form except for the addition of an -s ending to create the plural or the apostrophe + s to create the possessive, personal pronouns (which stand for persons or things) change form according to their various uses within a sentence. The following is the list of personal pronoun functions and their forms:
| Subject | Object | Adjective | Possessive |
| I | Me | My | Mine |
| You | You | Your | Yours |
| They | Them | Their | Theirs |
| We | Us | Our | Ours |
| He | Him | His | His |
| She | Her | Her | Hers |
| It | It | Its | Its |
Well, the above are some important aspects of English personal pronouns teachers should know. Hopefully, this article could be useful for you.
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