Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them depending on:

• number: singular (eg: I) or plural (eg: we)
• person: 1st person (eg: I), 2nd person (eg: you) or 3rd person (eg: he)
• gender: male (eg: he), female (eg: she) or neuter (eg: it)
• case: subject (eg: we) or object (eg: us)

We use personal pronouns in place of the person or people that we are talking about. My name is Josef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When I am talking direct to you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talking about another person, say John, I may start with "John" but then use "he" or "him". And so on.

Examples (in each case, the first example shows a subject pronoun, the second an object pronoun):

• I like coffee.
• John helped me.
  
  
• Do you like coffee?
• John loves you.
  
  
• He runs fast.
• Did Ram beat him?
  
  
• She is clever.
• Does Mary know her?
  
  
• It doesn't work.
• Can the engineer repair it?
  
  
• We went home.
• Anthony drove us.
  
  
• Do you need a table for three?
• Did John and Mary beat you at doubles?
  
  
• They played doubles.
• John and Mary beat them.

When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it. However, there are a few exceptions. We may sometimes refer to an animal as he/him or she/her, especially if the animal is domesticated or a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as some countries are often treated as female and referred to as she/her. Here are some examples:

• This is our dog Rusty. He's an Alsation.
• The Titanic was a great ship but she sank on her first voyage.
• My first car was a Mini and I treated her like my wife.
• Thailand has now opened her border with Cambodia.

For a single person, sometimes we don't know whether to use he or she. There are several solutions to this:

• If a teacher needs help, he or she should see the principal.
• If a teacher needs help, he should see the principal.
• If a teacher needs help, they should see the principal.

We often use it to introduce a remark:

• It is nice to have a holiday sometimes.
• It is important to dress well.
• It's difficult to find a job.
• Is it normal to see them together?
• It didn't take long to walk here.

We also often use it to talk about the weather, temperature, time and distance:

• It's raining.
• It will probably be hot tomorrow.
• Is it nine o'clock yet?
• It's 50 kilometres from here to Cambridge.

Subject pronouns	Posessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns	Reflexive pronouns	Object pronouns
I	my	mine	myself	me
you	your	yours	yourself	you
he	his	his	himself	him
she	her	hers	herself	her
it	its	its	itself	it
we	our	ours	ourselves	us
you	your	yours	yourselves	you
they	their	theirs	themselves	them