Pronouns are one of the most common parts of speech that occur in a sentence. A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun, noun phrase, or another pronoun. Many different types of pronouns are used in different situations, which include:
- Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, those, these)
- Indefinite pronouns (anyone, someone, no one)
- Interrogative pronouns (who, what, why)
- Personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, him, her)
- Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, theirs)
- Relative pronouns (that, which, who)
Personal pronouns are the pronouns that people are usually most familiar with. They are the pronouns that people use to replace names when talking about themselves, their audience, and other people. Personal pronouns exist in three perspectives or "persons," which is why they are called "personal" pronouns. These are:
- 1st person, which refers to the speaker or writer (I, me, we, us)
- 2nd person, which refers to the person/people the speaker or writer is addressing (you, you all)
- 3rd person, which refers to the person/people the speaker or writer discusses (he, she, it, they, him her, them)
The focus of this lesson is third-person pronouns, which refer to the person or people that the speaker or writer is discussing. Like most parts of speech, there are different forms that third-person personal pronouns take in sentences depending on the context. Although they are in the same category, third-person pronouns are not interchangeable because their form relies on their position in the sentence and what they are referring to.
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
The form of a third-person pronoun is determined by the pronoun's antecedent, the word the pronoun is replacing or referring to. The antecedent determines the number, singular or plural, and gender, masculine, feminine, or neutral, of the pronoun. However, the sentence structure determines what case, or part of speech, the pronoun functions.
Third-person personal pronouns can be either subjective, meaning they are the subject of a clause or sentence and are doing the action, or objective, meaning they are the object of the clause or sentence and are receiving the action. In the following sentence, "he" is in the subjective case while "her" is in the objective case:
- "He gave the book to her."
Writers often use pronouns to replace the antecedent in a sentence rather than keep repeating it, overall improving the flow of a paragraph far better than writing the same word each time. For example, the first item below does not use pronouns while the second item does:
- "Laura bought a new computer for Laura's husband, Andy. Andy was excited about the gift and decided to send Laura an e-mail from the computer to thank Laura."
- "Laura bought a new computer for her husband, Andy. He was excited about the gift and decided to send her an e-mail from the computer to thank her."
The example that uses pronouns helps improve the flow of the sentences by replacing the repeated words. Although pronouns can improve the flow of sentences, there are some cases where pronouns should not be used in place of a noun:
- When there is a significant distance between the antecedent and pronoun that might make the sentence unclear
- If there are multiple possible antecedents for a pronoun
- When the desired antecedent is part of a prepositional phrase
Third-Person Singular Pronoun
The number of third-person pronouns can either be singular or plural. A singular pronoun refers to just one person or thing. The third-person subjective singular pronouns are "he," "she," and "it." The third-person objective singular pronouns are "him," "her," and "it." Here are a few examples of third-person singular pronouns used in sentences, with the personal pronouns in italics for reference:
- "Ginny hurried to work on Monday morning. She was already late."
- "She" is a singular feminine subjective pronoun; the antecedent is "Ginny."
- "Max was excited about the new toy that Aunt Cindy got for him."
- "Him" is a singular masculine objective pronoun; the antecedent is "Max."
- "The dog in the shelter was so sweet that Peter had to adopt it."
- "It" is a singular neutral, objective pronoun; the antecedent is "dog" since gender is not specified.
Third-Person Plural Pronoun
Unlike singular pronouns, plural pronouns refer to more than one person or thing. These pronouns can be as few as two people/things or massive numbers of people/things. There are only two third-person personal pronouns: "they," the subjective form, and "them," which is the objective form. Both "they" and "them" are gender-neutral to be used as pronouns for any masculine, feminine, or neutral antecedent. In some cases, "they" or "them" refers to a singular person of an unknown gender; it can also be used to refer to someone who does not identify as male or female or prefers a gender-neutral pronoun.
Besides these exceptions, however, "they" or "them" should be used as a pronoun to refer to a plural antecedent. Here are a few examples of third-person plural pronouns in sentences, with the plural personal pronouns in italics for reference:
- "Dr. Jones graded the tests the students turned in and could not believe they performed so poorly."
- "They" is a plural neutral subjective pronoun; the antecedent is "students," a group of people with unidentified genders.
- "Because Samantha's girlfriends had a rough week, she brought them donuts."
- "Them" is a plural neutral, objective pronoun; the antecedent is "girlfriends," a feminine noun.
- "Although only men worked at the company, Florence fit in with them when she was hired."
- "Them" is a plural neutral, objective pronoun; the antecedent is "men," a masculine noun.
- "I saw the person who dropped this cell phone. They were very tall."
- "They" is used as a singular neutral subjective pronoun here to refer to someone of unknown gender.
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