What are pronouns?
English has seven pronouns. Usually, we put them into a table like this that helps us talk about them:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First-Person | I | we |
| Second-Person | you | you |
| Third-Person | he, she, it | they |
First-person, second-person, and third-person are also used to refer to points of view that stories can be written from.
In English, singular third-person pronouns usually match a person or living thing’s gender. Nonbinary people who don’t feel that “he” or “she” is correct often use singular “they.”
Although we often think of “they” as a plural pronoun, people have used “they” as a singular pronoun for hundreds of years. The only “correct” form of language is the language people use.
In many languages, the same pronoun may have a different form depending on the job it’s doing in a sentence. These different forms are called the “case” of the pronoun.
English cases can be inconsistent, but other languages like German have more consistent case systems. Some languages like Chinese don’t have cases at all.
Usually, the subject performs the action. The object receives the action. The possessive owns something.
Example 1: They [subject] took me [object] to the store.
Example 2: I [subject] went to the store with them [object].
Example 3: We [subject] rode in their [possessive] car.
The next table shows all of the standard pronouns in English arranged by case.
| Subject | Object | Possessive |
|---|---|---|
| I | me | my |
| we | us | our |
| you | you | your |
| he | him | his |
| she | her | her |
| it | it | its |
| they | them | their |
