personal pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of a noun. The personal pronouns are I, we, you, he, she, it and they (along with their different forms).

These pronouns refer to someone or something specific:

• I and we refer to the persons speaking or writing (first person).
• You refers to the person(s) receiving the message (second person).
• He, she, it and they refer to persons or things being discussed (third person).

Case with personal pronouns

Personal pronouns change their form depending on what they are doing in a sentence. This is an important difference between personal pronouns and nouns.

A noun keeps the same form, whether it is used as a subject or an object.

• Subject: Claude went skiing.
• Object: Marianne helped Claude up the hill.

But if we replace the noun Claude in the examples above with a personal pronoun, the pronoun will change its form.

• Subject: He went skiing.
• Object: Marianne helped him up the hill.

A personal pronoun that is the subject of the sentence must be in the subject form (e.g. he). A personal pronoun that is the object of a verb must be in the object form (e.g. him). The term case refers to the different forms a pronoun can take when it is a subject or an object, or is used to show possession. 

Subject case

The subject forms for personal pronouns are as follows:

• First person: I, we
• Second person: you
• Third person: he, she, it; they

Subject case is used for subjects or subject complements.

• Subject: He and Andrea went out for dinner; then they watched a movie. 
• Subject complement: It was I who left the message.

Object case

The object forms for personal pronouns are as follows:

• First person: me, us
• Second person: you
• Third person: him, her, it; them

Object case is used for direct and indirect objects of verbs and for objects of prepositions:

• Direct object: When the thieves ran off, the police pursued them.
• Indirect object: John gave me a new coat for Christmas.
• Object of preposition: I met Diane and went for a walk with her.

Possessive case

The possessive forms for personal pronouns are as follows:

• First person: mine, ours
• Second person: yours
• Third person: his, hers, its; theirs

The possessive case is used to show ownership:

• That book is mine.
• Did you forget yours?

Possessive adjectives

Personal pronouns have a second set of possessive forms that are used to modify nouns:

• First person: my, our
• Second person: your
• Third person: his, her, its; their

These possessive forms are usually referred to as possessive adjectives because, even though they are pronoun forms, they function as a type of modifier:

• I lost my keys.
• Where is your house?
• The dog hurt its paw.

© Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada, 2024
TERMIUM Plus^®, la banque de données terminologiques et linguistiques du gouvernement du Canada
Outils d'aide à la rédaction – Writing Tips
Un produit du Bureau de la traduction