First Person Pronouns

What are first person pronouns?

First person pronouns are used to write a more informal piece, such as a story, essay or
narrative, from the perspective of the person doing the writing, you. Many blogs are also
written from the first person perspective. Singular first person nouns are I, me, my,
mine and we, and first person plural pronouns are our, ours, we and us.

Subjective pronouns
The first person pronouns I and we are known as subjective pronouns because they act
as the subjects of the verb. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: I smiled at him (I is the subject of the verb smiled).
Example 2: We walked Emily home (we is the subject of the verb walked).

Objective pronouns
The personal pronouns me and us are objective pronouns because they act as the object
of verbs and prepositions. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: She smiled at me (me is the object of the preposition at).
Example 2: Emily walked us home (us is the object of the verb walked).

Possessive pronouns
My, mine, our and ours are possessive pronouns that are used to show ownership.
They are usually followed by a noun, as shown by the below example.
Example: Our pay for writing assignments is fair and competitive (our shows ownership of
pay for writing assignments).

I and me

When other people are mentioned in a sentence, the words I and me can cause
confusion. The construction of the sentence dictates whether you should use I or me. An
easy way to determine which pronoun to use is to leave out the other person in the
sentence, and imagine yourself alone in the context of the sentence. Consider the following
example:
Example: Andrew and (I/me) are going to the playground.
Remove the other person:
CORRECT: I am going to the playground.
INCORRECT: Me am going to the playground.
From this, you know I is the correct pronoun: Andrew and I are going to the playground.
The use of I is effective for writing introductions or sharing an interesting, personal incident.
I is rarely used to begin a factual thesis or express an authoritative statement; it is most
commonly used to express personal opinions and in more informal writing.

We and us
We and us are used as collective pronouns that include you as the writer and your
readers. Exercise caution when using it in your writing. It is correct to use we when you are
discussing a common purpose or creating a feeling of equality. On the other hand, it is best
not to use it to assume that everyone shares the same opinion.
When confused about whether to use we or us in a sentence, break the sentence down to
just the verb and the subject. Remember that we is a subjective pronoun, and us is an
objective pronoun. If the pronoun is not the subject, use us. If the pronoun is the subject,
use we. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: We/us freelance writers can earn a high income level if hard work is put into our
writing (the subject is we/us freelance writers, and the verb is earn).
The pronoun is the subject, so you use the subjective pronoun of we.

Example 2: More work comes to we/us writers who write engaging content and proofread
well (the subject is work, and the verb is comes).The pronoun is not the subject, so you
use the objective pronoun of us.

Personal pronoun
Possessi
ve

First-

Singular

Subj

Obj

ect

ect

me

Reflexive

myself

pronoun

mine

pers

Possessi
ve
determin
er

my
mine (bef

on

ore
vowel)
me (esp.
BrE)

Plural

we

us

ourselves

ours

our

ourself

Seco

Sing

Standard (archaic

nd-

ular

formal)

you

you

yourself

yours

your

thou

thee

thyself

thine

thy

pers
on
Archaic informal

thine (bef
ore
vowel)

Plura

Standard

you

you

yourselves

yours

your

Archaic

ye

you

yourselves

yours

your

Nonstandard

you

you

y'all's (or y'alls

y'all's (or

y'all's (or

all

all

) selves

y'alls)

y'alls)

y'all

y'all

yous

you

se

etc.
(see
abov
e)

Third

Sing

ular

Masculine

he*

him* himself

his*

his*

hisself

pers
on
Feminine

Neuter

Epicene (see sing

she

her

herself

hers

her

it

it

itself

its

they

the

themself

theirs

their

themselves

theirs

their

ular they)

theirself
theirselves

Plural

Gene

they

the

themselves

theirselves

Formal

one

one

oneself

one's

one's

Informal

you

you

yourself

your

your

who

who

whomself

whose

whose

whoself

ric

Interrogative/relative pronoun

who

Second Person Pronouns

What are second person pronouns?

Second person pronouns are acceptable for use in both informal and formal writing. Formal
pieces might include technical and business documents, presentations, blogs, product
descriptions, articles and more. These pronouns take the place of a noun and are used to
address your reader. The second person uses the pronouns you, your and yours. These
three pronouns are used when addressing one, or more than one, person.

Subjective pronouns
The second person pronouns are known as subjective pronouns when they refer to the
subject in a sentence or follow a linking verb, which is a verb that does not express action
and connects the subject to the verb. Look at the below example:
Example 1: You ran in the marathon (you is the subject of the verb ran).
Example 2: The writer who controls the amount of work completed is you (is is a linking
verb that connects you, the writer, to the verb completed).

Objective pronouns
Second person pronouns are objective pronouns when they act as the object of prepositions
or verbs. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: The professor called on you (you is the object of the verb called).
Example 2: The girl took the paper idea from you (you is the object of the preposition
from, as the object of the verb took is the paper idea).

Possessive pronouns
Sometimes personal pronouns are used to indicate possession. In that case, the apostrophe
punctuation is not necessary. Its is a contraction of two words it is. Possessive personal
pronouns do not use the apostrophe. Writing yours implies that the words your is are
substituted, which makes no sense. The example below shows the correct usage of the
possessive second case pronoun:
Example: Yours is the second house on the left (yours is the second person, singular,
possessive case).

You singular or plural?

In writing, use of the word you can grow complicated. You refers to an individual or a
group of people. Make sure your sentence is clear, so that reader know whether you are
referring to one person or more than one. Consider the following example:
INCORRECT: Thank you, Wilma and Fred. You should point out Pebbles in the photograph
(this sentence indicates that you should perform an act. Who should do it one of them or
both of them?).
CORRECT: Thank you, Wilma and Fred. Wilma, you should point out Pebbles in the
photograph.

Do not use you to refer to yourself

When writing in the second person, make sure that the use of you refers to the reader and
not yourself. Consider the following example:
INCORRECT: I hate eating seven-course meals because it makes you feel stuffed (you are
writing about yourself but say you).
CORRECT: I hate eating seven-course meals because it makes me feel stuffed. You hate
eating seven-course meals because it makes you feel stuffed.

Gender distinction
Note that second person pronouns have no gender distinction. Whether you or your writers
are male or female, you refers to either gender.

Third Person Pronouns

What are third person pronouns?

Third person pronouns are an essential tool in writing because they are less cumbersome
and cut down on the repetition of nouns. Third person pronouns are widely used in writing,
for anything from fictional and traditional forms of academic writing to product descriptions,
guides, blogs, articles and more. Singular third person pronouns are he, she, it, his,
hers, him and her, and third person plural pronouns are they, them and their. The
number of people to which you are referring should always match the pronoun you choose
(he to refer to one male, they to refer to more than one male).

Subjective pronouns
A subjective pronoun acts as the subject of a sentence and performs the action of the verb.
Consider the following examples:
Example 1: After breakfast, he went to school (he is the subject of the verb went).
Example 2: They spent hours looking at the stars (they is the subject of the verb spent).

Objective pronouns
An objective pronoun acts as the object of the sentence and receives the action of the verb
or preposition. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: Grandfather gave him a book (him is the object that receives the action of the
verb gave).
Example 2: Take a picture of them! (them is the object of the preposition of).

Possessive pronouns
When pronouns are possessive, a noun usually follows the pronoun. Possessive pronouns
show ownership or possession of the object. Remember that collective nouns (teams,
businesses, groups) use the singular pronoun of its and not the plural pronoun of theirs.
Consider the following examples:
Example 1: Her dog is a golden retriever (her shows ownership of the object dog).

Example 2: His brother scored the winning point (his shows ownership of the object
brother).
The possessive form it does not take an apostrophe. Consider the following example:
Example: The lacrosse team won its first game of the season. (its shows ownership of the
object game).

Gender distinction
Third person pronouns have genders (masculine and feminine) and a neuter category. The
gender pronouns are clear; the neuter pronouns are they, them and their.

He or she versus they

With third person singular pronouns, a persons gender is clear. There are not personal
pronouns that refer to someone (as opposed to something) without first establishing whether
the person is male or female. Todays approach suggests using a gender-neutral solution in
these cases. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: If your child is thinking about studying abroad, he or she can receive good
advice from his website (since child is singular and not gender specific, he or she offers a
gender-neutral solution).
Example 2: If your children are thinking about studying abroad, they can receive good
advice from this website (since children is plural and not gender specific, they offers a
gender-neutral solution).
Using he or she can sound a bit formal, but if you are writing according to a specific style
guide, such as MLA, APA or AP, most prefer the use of the male pronoun when there is no
gender specified. However, an easy way to work around this is to make the noun to which
the pronoun refers plural, as is the case in previous example using children and they.

Possessive Pronouns

We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific

person/people or thing/things (the "antecedent") belonging to

a person/people (and sometimes belonging to an

animal/animals or thing/things).
We use possessive pronouns depending on:
number: singular (eg: mine) or plural (eg: ours)
person: 1st person (eg: mine), 2nd person (eg: yours)
or 3rd person (eg: his)
gender: male (his), female (hers)
Below are the possessive pronouns, followed by some example
sentences. Notice that each possessive pronoun can:
be subject or object
refer to a singular or plural antecedent

List of Pronouns