Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are used to refer to oneself, the people one is talking to, or the people or
things one is talking about.

Personal pronouns like ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘we’ and ‘they’ are used as the subjects of
sentences. They refer to the person or persons performing an action.

Can you turn down the volume of the radio?

The music is too loud for us.
Yes, I can.
He is reading the newspaper.
She is chatting with her friend on the telephone.
It is licking its paw.

We can use ‘it’ for a person when we are asking or saying who the person is.

There is someone at the window.

Who is it?
I think it is a burglar.

Personal pronouns like ‘me’, ‘you’, ‘him’, ‘her’, ‘it’, ‘us’ and ‘them’ are used as the objects
of verbs or prepositions. They refer to the person or persons who are affected by the action.

We can use object pronouns in comparisons.

 He is taller than me.

 I am as tall as him.

Here is a table about personal pronoun.

Subject Pronouns Object Pronouns

Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st person I We Me Us
2nd person You You You You
3rd person He, she, it They Him, her, it Them
 Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are words ending in ‘-self’ (for singular pronouns) or ‘-selves’ (for
plural pronouns)

Reflexive pronouns show that the actions are done by and to the same person. The subject
and the object of each sentence are the same.

We use a reflexive pronoun to emphasise the importance of the noun or pronoun.

 Nobody helped Alice with the project. She did it herself.

 I myself cannot believe that she did such a horrible thing!

Here is a table about reflexive pronoun.

Singular Plural
1st person Myself Ourselves
2nd person Yourself Yourselves
3rd person Himself, herself, itself Themselves