mercredi 26 novembre 2014

Top Tips Grammar: Personal pronouns

Main points

+You use personal pronouns to refer back to something or someone that has already been mentioned.
+You also use personal pronouns to refer to people and things directly.
+There are two sets of personal pronouns: subject pronouns and object pronouns.
+You can use ‘you’ and ‘they’ to refer to people in general.

 

a) When something or someone has already been mentioned, you refer to them again by using a pronoun.

- John took the book and opened it.
- He rang Mary and invited her to dinner.
- ‘Have you been to London?’ – ‘Yes, it was very crowded’.
- My father is fat – he weighs over fifteen stone.

In English, ‘he’, and ‘she’ normally refer to people, occasionally to animals, but very rarely to things.

 

b) You use a pronoun to refer directly to people or things that are present or are involved in the situation you are in.

- Where shall we meet, Sally?
- I do the washing; he does the cooking; we share the washing-up.
- Send us a card so we’ll know where you are.

 

c) There are two sets of personal pronouns, subject pronouns and object pronouns. You use subject pronouns as the subject of a verb.

I He It They
You She We  

Note that ‘you’ is used for the singular and plural form

- We are going there later.
- I don’t know what to do.

 

d) You use object pronouns as the direct or indirect object of a verb.

Me Him It Them
You Her Us  

Note that ‘you’ is used for the singular and plural form.

- The nurse washed me with cold water.
- The ball hit her in the face.
- John showed him the book.
- Can you give me some more cake?

Note that, in modern English, you use object pronouns rather than subject pronouns after the verb ‘be’.

- ‘Who is it?’ – ‘It’s me’.
- There was only John, Alex, and me in the room.

You also use object pronouns as the object of a preposition.

- We were all sitting in a cafe with him.
- Did you give it to them?

 

e) You can use ‘you’ and ‘they’ to talk about people in general.

- You have to drive on the other side of the road on the continent.
- They say she’s very clever.

 

f) You can use ‘it’ as an impersonal subject in general statements which refers to the time, the date, or the weather.

- ‘What time is it?’ ‘It’s half past three’.
- It is January 18th.
- It is rainy and cold.

You can also use ’it’ as the subject or object in general statements about the situation.

- It is too far to walk.
- I like it here. Can we stay a bit longer?

 

g) A singular pronoun usually refers back to a singular noun group, and a plural pronoun to a plural noun group. However, you can use plural pronouns to refer back to:

*indefinite pronouns, even though they are always followed by a singular verb.

- If anybody comes, tell them I’m not in.

*collective nouns, even when you have used a singular verb.

- His family was waiting in the next room, but they had not yet been informed.

 

 

 

 

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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
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See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs Common Slangs
Common misspellings Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors Frequently confused words
Common Slangs Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés Common Prepositions

 

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