Basic English Grammar

Personal Pronouns

Look at the following sentences:

• I love him.
• We have invited them.
• She visited us.
• We have decided to buy it.

The words in bold letters are examples of personal pronouns.

Personal pronouns belong to three categories: first person, second person and third person.

The pronouns I, my, mine, me, we, our, ours and us are called first person pronouns.

The pronouns you, your, yours are called second person pronouns. Note that the archaic words thou, thine, thee and ye are also second person pronouns. They are, nevertheless, seldom used except in poetry.

The pronouns he, his, him, she, her, hers, they, their, theirs, them, it and its are called third person pronouns.

Case

A personal pronoun can be in three case forms: nominative case, objective case and possessive case.

The pronouns I, you, he, she, it, they and we are said to be in the nominative case (subject form).

The pronouns my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their and theirs are said to be in the possessive case. The pronouns me, you, him, her, it, us and them are said to be in the objective case (object form).

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