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English personal pronouns

English grammar series

English grammar

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English has a number of personal pronouns, used to indicate the person, number, and/or gender of their antecedents and referents. They are shown below, together with their possessive-pronoun and -adjective counterparts. Reflexive pronouns are used as the object of a sentence when the subject and object match; they are also used as intensive pronouns to emphasize a participant, as in "You yourself told me that." Possessive pronouns and adjectives are used to show ownership.

personal pronoun possessive
subject object reflexive pronoun determiner
first-person singular I me myself mine my
plural we us ourselves ours our
second-person singular you yourself yours your
plural yourselves
third-person singular masculine he him himself his
feminine she her herself hers her
neuter it itself its
plural they them themselves theirs their

Notes:

  1. Historically, my was sometimes changed to mine before a vowel. (Similarly with thy and thine; see note 3.)
  2. The forms of we are also sometimes used with a singular sense. When this is the case, they take a plural verb, but ourselves is often changed to ourself.
  3. Historically, there were separate informal second-person singular forms — thou, thee, thyself, thy, and thine — but today they have all but disappeared from Standard English (though a few dialects retain them).
  4. Historically, you was an object pronoun, and ye was its subject-pronoun counterpart; today, you fills both roles in Standard English, though some dialects use ye for both roles, and some use ye as a clipped or clitic form of you.
  5. While formal Standard English uses you for both singular and plural, many dialects use various special forms for the plural, such as y'all (short for "you all"), you guys, yinz (short for "you ones"), and yous (also spelled youse). Corresponding reflexive and possessive pronouns are often used as well.
  6. The forms of you are also sometimes used with the sense of the pronoun one; see Generic you.
  7. Historically, his was the possessive of it as well of he; nowadays it has been completely supplanted by its.
  8. Historically the forms they, their, and them are of Scandinavian origin (from the Viking invasions and settlement in northeastern England during the Danelaw period from the 9th to the 11th centuries).[1]
  9. The forms of they are also sometimes used with grammatically or semantically singular antecedents, though it is a matter of some dispute whether and when such usage is acceptable; see Singular they. When this is the case, they take a plural verb, but themselves with a singular sense is often changed to themself.

See also

References

  1. ^ Dissertation by Elise Morse-Gagne. 2006. Pronouns in England: Charting the course of THEY, THEIR, and THEM.

Categories


English grammar | Pronouns

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