Is you a first person word

Third Person in Grammar The personal pronouns (“I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “we,” “they”) are grouped into one of three categories: First person: “I” and “we” Second person: “you” Third person: “He/She/It” and “They”

Is the word you first second or third person?

First, Second, and Third Person Pronouns

Is the first person second person and third person are the types of verbs?

In English, we have six different persons: first person singular (I), second person singular (you), third person singular (he/she/it/one), first person plural (we), second person plural (you), and third person plural (they). We must conjugate a verb for each person.

Is the word they second person?

Second Person (in Grammar) The term “second person” refers to the speaker’s audience (i.e.,”you”). The personal pronouns (“I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “we,” “they”) are grouped into one of three categories: First person: “I” and “we” Second person: “you”

What would a 2nd person game look like?

2nd person – you control a character from the view of another character. I think Mario 64 could be considered a second person game. You control Mario and view the action through a lakitu (as seen when looking in mirrors).

Can there be dialogue in third person?

Now, we never get to hear the viewpoint character’s voice directly in a third person narrative. (That only happens in a first person story.) Every word that the reader reads (except for the dialogue), comes straight from the narrator (and ultimately, of course, straight from the author).

What is the third person narrative?

THIRD-PERSON NARRATION: Any story told in the grammatical third person, i.e. without using “I” or “we”: “he did that, they did something else.” In other words, the voice of the telling appears to be akin to that of the author him- or herself.

How do you write in third person academically?

In academic writing the convention is to write in the third person. This means not using personal pronouns (words such as I, me or my), and avoiding referring to yourself or your reader.

Is third person past tense?

Another important point about lab reports is that they should usually be written in third person, past tense. This means you should not use personal pronouns like “I” or “we.” And all the procedures you used in your study should be written about as if they happened in the past.

Can first person be past tense?

Combining first person and past tense is just as common. It allows for a more traditional ‘storytelling’ feel, as the narrator is recounting events that have happened in the past from their own perspective. Whichever tense you choose, it’s important to stick with it.

What is the easiest tense to write in?

Past tense is by far the most common tense, whether you’re writing a fictional novel or a nonfiction newspaper article. If you can’t decide which tense you should use in your novel, you should probably write it in past tense. There are many reasons past tense is the standard for novels.

What tense is used in third person?

present tense

Can a verb be third person?

Finally, as mentioned above, the modal verbs, such as can, must, should, may and might, do not take -s in the third person singular present because, as you probably know, modal verbs do not take endings at all. She can speak three languages. He must like football a lot.

What is third person singular in English grammar?

singular noun. In grammar, a statement in the third person is a statement about another person or thing, and not directly about yourself or about the person you are talking to. The subject of a statement like this is ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, or a name or noun.

Take a look at the following sentences: I am the greatest. Everybody loves me almost as much as I love myself. While we can’t say much for this writer’s humility, we do know, however, that this person knows how to use pronouns. And not just any pronouns. The pronouns they use are based on a first person point of view: they are describing the world as they see it through their own eyes. As you are about to learn, when we need to use the first person, nobody is better at it than me, myself, and I.

What is first person?

The first person is the point of view used by a writer or speaker when talking about the world as they see it. First person is used by someone when they want to reference themselves. In literature, the first person is used when a character is narrating their own story.

For example, a story might have a sentence that reads I searched for the pirate treasure. This sentence is written in the first person; it says that whoever is saying or writing this sentence is also the one who is doing the action it is referring to. Authors often use the first person to make fiction stories more immersive, as first person allows the main character to describe everything directly from their own point of view.

In everyday life, we use the first person all of the time to talk about ourselves and to tell others things that happened to us or things we plan to do.

What is a first-person pronoun?

A first-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to the speaker or writer. Typically, a first-person pronoun doesn’t actually replace a noun and is understood to mean that a writer/speaker is referring to themself or to a group that includes themselves.

List of first-person pronouns

The most commonly used first-person pronouns include:

• I
• me
• we
• us
• mine
• ours
• myself
• ourselves

Each of the above words has specific reasons for its use:

• I and me are singular words that are used when a speaker/writer is referring only to themselves. I is a subject pronoun and me is an object pronoun. The word I is special in English because it is capitalized no matter where it appears in a sentence.
• We and us are plural words that are used when a speaker is referring to themselves as part of a group. We is a subject pronoun and us is an object pronoun.
• Mine and ours are possessive pronouns that are used to refer to possessions, origins, or other special relationships. Both of these words can be either singular or plural.
• Myself and ourselves are reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns used by a writer/speaker to refer back to their own self as an individual or as part of a group. If used as a subject, myself is treated as singular and ourselves is treated as plural.

Examples of first-person pronouns

The following examples show how we use first-person pronouns in sentences. In each sentence, the first-person pronoun references the speaker/writer either alone or as part of a group.

• I was born in Switzerland.
• Chole met me at the mall.
• We will be at the beach tomorrow.
• Andre’s house is bigger than mine.
• I drew a picture of myself.

Explore even further the dynamic between and uses of subject and object pronouns.

Why and when to use first-person pronouns

There are several different reasons why someone might use first-person pronouns.

To sound natural

In everyday speech and writing, most people naturally want to use the first person when talking about themselves. It is often the least awkward way to refer to oneself and allows for smoother sentences that are easier to understand.

For example, if a person named Matthew was telling his friends about his vacation, he would most likely say:

• I went to the Bahamas.

When they hear this sentence, Matthew’s friends immediately know that Matthew is talking about himself. But what if Matthew did not use the first person and instead said:

• Matthew went to the Bahamas.

Now, Matthew’s friends are confused. Is Matthew talking about another person also named Matthew? To most English speakers, hearing someone refer to themselves in the third person sounds very odd.

To add a personal touch

Using the first person often gives humanity to speech or a piece of writing. For example, look at the following two sentences:

• People need to stop littering in the park.
• We need to stop littering in the park.

Although the difference is slight, the second sentence sounds more personal as the writer/speaker is including themselves as part of the group that needs to take action. A writer/speaker may decide to use the first person if they want to make their writing sound more personal or establish a closer relationship with their audience.

To provide an immersive point of view

In writing, the first person is often seen to be more immersive as the reader is viewing the action from the eyes of the main character as they read the story. Particularly in fiction, a first person point of view is helpful to make a story more exciting, more suspenseful, or more relatable. For this reason, an author may choose to use first-person pronouns over third person pronouns if they feel it is stylistically the best choice for the story they are writing.

Besides using first person perspective, there are many ways to create specific moods in your writing. learn more about atmosphere and mood!

First vs. second and third person pronouns

First person is one of three points of view. The other two are called second person and third person. The second person is used to refer to a person or people that the speaker/writer is addressing and uses pronouns that include you, yours, and yourself. The third person is used to refer to a person or people not including the speaker or the person or people they are addressing. Third person pronouns include he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, they, theirs, and them.

In general, a pronoun is chosen based on who is doing what in a sentence. For example:

• I am a firefighter. (The speaker is a firefighter.)
• You are a firefighter. (The person the speaker is talking to is a firefighter.)
• They are firefighters. (A group of people that doesn’t include the speaker nor their audience consists of firefighters.)

• I helped you. (The speaker helped the person they are talking to.)
• You helped him. (The person that the speaker is addressing helped a person that isn’t the speaker or the person being addressed.)
• They helped us. (A group of people that doesn’t include the speaker helped a group of people that includes the speaker.)

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What is a personal pronoun? How about, is you a personal pronoun? These are the nouns you probably think of first when you think about pronouns: words that refer to a specific person, place, thing, or idea without using its proper name. In most cases, they replace the proper name after it has already been used, but a few of these words name people without any antecedent. In this guide, you will learn about both personal pronouns and first person pronouns and all of their instances. Read further ahead to answer what are personal pronouns in your own words.

Subjects and Objects

A list of these particular personal pronouns would be fairly short: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them. Essentially, there is a form for each person and number, depending on whether the noun it is replacing is the subject or object of the sentence.

• I, he, she, it, we, and they are subjects
• Me, him, her, us, and them are objects
• You and it can function in both capacities

So, what are personal pronouns and how do they fit into sentence structures? In general, a personal pronoun replaces a previously-named noun (its antecedent) with a clear correlation between the two.

• Joan and I met in college. We work at the same company now.
• Bob was supposed to pick up the cake, but he forgot.

In both of these sentences, the personal pronoun is clearly replacing its predecessor: Joan and I become we, and Bob becomes he. Let’s look more closely at each group.

You and I: What is a Personal Pronoun?

The majority of personal pronouns are replacements for a previous proper noun: a name that clearly identifies someone, somewhere, or something. However, there are two words that exist as their own entities because they are the only way to identify the concepts they represent: I and you.

Is you a personal pronoun?I is the most basic among first person pronouns, serving to identify the speaker. Its object form is me, also identifying the speaker but as an object of a verb or preposition rather than the subject. Now there is a common question out there, is you a personal pronoun? You, in both its singular and plural forms, identifies the person or people to whom the sentence is addressed. Its form does not change when it is used as an object. But before you think you can answer what are personal pronouns, there’s a little more than meets the eye.

These first person pronouns are set apart from the others in their categories because they are their own concepts; there is no other way to identify the persons to whom they refer.

Another case where you can act as a personal pronoun, but is used incorrectly, is when people often write and say between you and I. This phrase should be:

• Between you and me…etc.

The reason for this is because the preposition, between, is usually followed by an objective personal pronoun (such as me, him, her, and us) as opposed to a subjective personal pronoun (such as I, he, she, and we).

When we study the question of what is a personal pronoun, we have to consider the concept of person. When we talk about person as a grammatical concept, we don’t just mean person in the sense of a living human being. Person refers to whether a part of speech is tailored to refer to the speaker, the addressee, or an outside being or object. Thus, personal pronouns exist. We’ll break these down below, and you can always use our essay checker to double-check your own writing.

First Steps First: First Person Pronouns

The concept of the first person in grammar is a way of indicating the speaker’s involvement in the sentence that is being narrated. I, we, and us are the first person pronouns, with I as the singular and we and us as the plural forms. I is a first person pronoun used when the narrator of the phrase is referring to themselves, and we or us refers back to a group of two or more that includes the speaker.

• John, Mary, and I wanted to go to the movies, but we couldn’t agree on what to see.

In this sentence, we in the dependent clause refers back to John, Mary, and I earlier in the sentence. 

Reflexive verbs come into play and act as intensifiers to personal pronouns. An intensifier is an adverb that gives emphasis to a part of speech in a sentence or clause. In the case of reflexive verbs: myself, themselves, ourselves, her/himself, itself can enhance a personal pronoun such as the example below: 

• Carrie goes shopping herself all the time.  

Herself refers back to Carrie which is the personal pronoun for her person. It enhances the fact that Carrie is capable of going shopping alone and can be used or replaced with other reflexive verbs, depending on the context.

First person pronouns can also be used to refer to possession in a sentence. With words like my and mine, yours and ours, a person can claim ownership or over another noun for the subject in the sentence. In this example:

• Cameron said those dishes are ours.

Cameron and the speaker claim ownership over the dishes. The first person pronoun, ours, helps the speaker group both them and Cameron as the sole owners of those dishes.

As we’ve previously discussed, I is also a first person pronoun but does not replace anything. To know what is a personal pronoun covers more ground than you think. See this for even more details.

Just a Second!: Is You a Personal Pronoun?

The next category, as you might guess, is the second person. This category actually only consists of a single word: you, which is incredibly versatile in that it can be used as a subject or an object, and as a singular or plural noun. Is you a personal pronoun? Absolutely! You, like first person pronouns, do not have to replace anything but instead stands as its own concept. In general, you is used to indicate the noun (usually a person or people) being addressed by the narrator of the sentence. Let’s start with examples of the singular you.

• You are one of the top candidates being considered for the promotion.
• Sally, did Jane give the file to you?

In the first sentence, you, indicates that the speaker is talking directly to the person who is being considered for a promotion, and the inclusion of the phrase “one of the top candidates” gives us a context clue that the speaker is addressing one person, not several.

In the second sentence, you is the object of the preposition to and indicates to whom the files were supposed to be given. The speaker addresses the other person by name earlier in the sentence, so we can see that this is addressed to just one person. Let’s see how you works in a plural context.

• Class! You have to pay attention, or you will not pass the test.
• I’ll forward the email to you.

In the first sentence, the context makes it clear that you refers to the class as a whole, consisting of many people who need to pay attention. The second sentence is not as clear: you could be singular or plural, because there’s no context to make sense of it. Because this situation is very common, you will often see phrases such as you all(or you guys or y’all if you’re in an informal context) to clarify. Hence why the question, ‘is you a personal pronoun’ is a popular one.

Easy as 1, 2, 3: Personal Pronouns and the Third Person

The final category of personal pronouns is third person, and it’s the most exhaustive category: he, him, she, her, it, they, and them. With the exception of it, all of these pronouns have different forms for subject usage and object usage. Without these explanations, answering what are personal pronouns would be difficult. In general, a third person personal pronoun must have a clear antecedent in order to make sense.

• She is reading a new book.

If this sentence stands alone, it makes no sense: who is she? It needs a preceding sentence that gives a proper name. If the sentence “Sara is on her lunch break” preceded the above sentence, then it would become clear that she is replacing Sara.

A quick note on a common question: while they and them are traditionally used as the third-person plural personal pronouns, they are increasingly used in colloquial English in a singular context when the gender is unknown. This is because it is generally considered incorrect to use to refer to a human being and referenced as a first person pronoun. The evolution of the singular they in becoming a first person pronoun is ongoing. Check the conventions of the style you’re using, whether it’s MLA format, APA format, or something else. You can read up on more styles on our site to ensure that your grammar and style is impeccable! Afterwards, take stock of what you learned so far and ask yourself what is a personal pronoun and see if you can make your own examples.

Summary: What is a personal Pronoun?

Below you will find some questions to help you practice your newfound information out. Check it over with a friend and reuse it as many times as you want.

Follow-up Questions:

1. What are personal pronouns?
2. List all that fall under what is a personal pronoun and first person pronouns that you know and make sentences out of them!
3. Is you a personal pronoun?

Published March 6th, 2019. Updated April 30th, 2020.

What is a personal pronoun?

Let’s start with the basics first: what is a pronoun? Pronouns, simply put, are words that replace nouns. Pronouns can replace people, such as in this line from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool.

Pronouns can also replace places and things, such as in this line from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.

Besides personal pronouns, there are also object pronouns, possessive pronouns, relative pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and, believe it or not, even more kinds of pronouns, but let’s not get into those now. Let’s focus on personal and first-person pronouns because, let’s face it, we all love talking about ourselves, right?

So, what is a personal pronoun? What sets it apart from the rest of the pronoun family? Personal pronouns only refer to people. Here are some examples you know and love. Each one serves to stand in for a person’s name or multiple people’s names.

• you
• he
• she
• it
• we
• they
• me
• him
• her
• us
• them

Here are example sentences you might use on a daily basis:

I am going to class now.

You will love them.

They are meeting us later.

What are the different kinds of personal pronouns?

Not all personal pronouns are created equal. They can be broken down into four categories: point of view, case, gender, and quantity. It’s a lot to digest, but don’t worry. Let’s break it down.

Point of view

Case

Gender

Quantity

What are third-, second-, and first-person pronouns?

The most important use of personal pronouns is to talk about ourselves and others, and to do that, we need to use different points of view. Let’s hone in on the three points of view and how they differ.

First-Person Pronouns

The first-person point of view refers to language told from the speaker’s or writer’s point of view. First-person pronouns, then, are pronouns that you’d use when talking about yourself and groups you’re a part of. I, we, me, and us are first-person pronouns. Look how Ron uses them in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

“I know who you are!” said Ron suddenly. “My brothers told me about you⁠—you’re Nearly Headless Nick!”

First-person pronouns are not appropriate in all situations, especially in formal or academic writing, except in specific cases. First-person accounts are not deemed acceptable in scientific and academic writing in which readers are looking for factual information. Use the first-person pronoun in academic writing to

• Give opinions that the larger community is not yet open to accepting
• Hedge or suggest something
• Create a bridge to connect with the readers, especially if the author is explaining a difficult concept
• Establish a teacher-student or an expert-novice context
• Explain terms to show the common practices or thoughts, where the words we and our are used
• Show the author’s expertise in the field where his or her opinion will carry credibility
• Avoid implicit assumptions
• Organize the text and give the reader an idea of what to expect
• Create sections and methodologies
• Show that what the author is trying to say is unique
• Build on the writer’s previous work
• Dispute what others have said

Second-Person Pronouns

The second-person point of view refers to language about the person being addressed. It’s often called the “you” point of view. The only second-person personal pronoun is you. See how Ron uses “you” in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

“You don’t know that you’ll make a fool of yourself,” said Ron reasonably.

Difference between Singular and Plural Second-Person Pronouns

Let us consider this with an example:

You may help yourself and rise up to the occasion. (Yourself is used as a singular, second-person pronoun).

You may help yourselves and rise up to the occasion. (Yourselves is used as a plural, second-person pronoun.)

In the above examples, the situation and context were the same. However, by positioning the singular and plural versions of the second-person pronoun you, the context changes and provides meaning to the reader.

Third-Person Pronouns

The third-person point of view refers to language about someone besides the speaker. Third-person pronouns are the words you use to talk about others: he, him, she, her, it, they, and them. Look how J.K. Rowling uses third-person pronouns in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to avoid repeating “Hermione”:

She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles.

Why are they important?

So, what are personal pronouns good for? If you’re wondering why you need to bother with pronouns when you have perfectly good names, this one’s for you. Take a look at the passage below from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy.

Sounds good, right? Well, take a look at what happens if you take out all the pronouns in the same passage

Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. Slytherin believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. Slytherin disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing the students of Muggle parentage to be untrustworthy.

Not quite as eloquent, huh? Need we say more?

How to properly use personal pronouns

Now that we’ve established the necessity of personal pronouns, let’s talk about how to use them. There are a few common mistakes that are easy to make when using these pronouns. Let’s go through them and discuss how to avoid them.

1. Personal pronoun/antecedent disagreement
If you use a personal pronoun to replace a noun, be sure the quantities match. So, if you are replacing the singular noun phrase “a student,” don’t use the plural pronoun “they” but rather “he or she.”

Incorrect: Jane, Lila, and Wendy all went to the beach. She had a good time.
Correct: Jane, Lila, and Wendy all went to the beach. They had a good time.

2. Subjective vs. objective pronouns

Subjective pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) are subjects and should not be used as objects, just as objective pronouns (me, you, her, him, it, us, them) should not be used as subjects.

Take this example from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

Incorrect: The Potters knew very well what him and Petunia thought about them and their kind.
Correct: The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind.

Would you ever say, “The Potters knew very well what  thought about them and their kind?” Probably not.

3. Using a “self” pronoun instead of a personal pronoun
We didn’t discuss the reflexive “self” pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, etc.) in this guide, but it’s a common error to sub in one of those him in place of a personal pronoun.

Take this example from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

Incorrect: He couldn’t see how Petunia and himself could get mixed up in anything that might be going on.
Correct: He couldn’t see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on.

As a final note, be sure to respect others’ identities by using their preferred pronouns. If you are aware of the pronouns that a person identifies with, you should use those pronouns. If you’re ever unsure, you may use they or them.

Key takeaways

Personal pronouns:

• Replace people in grammar.
• Include: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, you, her, him, it, us, them
• Are categorized by point of view, case, gender, and quantity.
• Save us from having to repeat names over and over.
• First-person pronouns include I, me, we, us

Worried about your writing? The Chegg Writing grammar checker can help you identify and fix potential writing issues.

Review questions and exercises

Next time your friend asks you, “What is a personal pronoun?” or “Is you a personal pronoun?”, you’ll know the answer, but let’s make sure you know your grammar backwards and forwards. You’ve got this!

1. What is a personal pronoun?
   • a. pronouns that indicate which entities are being referred to
   • b. pronouns used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same
   • c. pronouns that indicate possession
   • d. pronouns that refer to a particular grammatical person
2. Which of the following is not a personal pronoun?
   • a. He
   • b. Hers
   • c. It
   • d. Us
3. Which sentence uses a personal pronoun correctly?
   • a. Jess and her are going to play soccer.
   • b. She and Jess are going to play soccer.
4. Is you a personal pronoun?
   • a. Yes, because it refers to a person
   • b. No, because it shows possession
5. Which sentence uses a first-person pronoun?
   • a. We don’t want to go out to eat.
   • b. She wants to go to the pool.
   • c. Are you listening to him?
   • d. Give her the phone.
6. Which sentence uses a personal pronoun correctly?
   • a. Her friends are fun, but they are not nice.
   • b. His friends aren’t fun, but it is nice.
7. Which sentence uses a personal pronoun correctly?
   • a. Her and Jack got a snack from the vending machine.
   • b. Jack and herself got a snack from the vending machine.
   • c. She and Jack got a snack from the vending machine.

Answers:

1. D
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. A
6. A
7. C

Works cited

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Scholastic Inc., 2018.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic Inc., 2018.

Published July 21, 2020.

By Jolee McManus. Jolee earned a BA in English from the University of Georgia. She has several years of experience as a writing tutor and freelance copywriter and editor.

Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as I), second person (as you), or third person (as he, she, it, they). Personal pronouns may also take different forms depending on number (usually singular or plural), grammatical or natural gender, case, and formality. The term «personal» is used here purely to signify the grammatical sense; personal pronouns are not limited to people and can also refer to animals and objects (as the English personal pronoun it usually does).

The re-use in some languages of one personal pronoun to indicate a second personal pronoun with formality or social distance – commonly a second person plural to signify second person singular formal – is known as the T–V distinction, from the Latin pronouns tu and vos. Examples are the majestic plural in English and the use of vous in place of tu in French.

For specific details of the personal pronouns used in the English language, see English personal pronouns.

Types and forms[edit]

Pronoun vs pro-form[edit]

Pronoun is a category of words. A pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context.^[1] Pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns.^[2][p. 239]

1. It‘s a good idea. (pronoun and pro-form)
2. It‘s raining. (pronoun but not pro-form)
3. I asked her to help, and she did so right away. (pro-form but not pronoun)

In [1], the pronoun it «stands in» for whatever was mentioned and is a good idea. In [2], the pronoun it doesn’t stand in for anything. No other word can function there with the same meaning; we don’t say «the sky is raining» or «the weather is raining». So, it is a pronoun but not a pro-form. Finally, in [3], did so is a verb phrase, not a pronoun, but it is a pro-form standing for «help».

Person and number[edit]

Languages typically have personal pronouns for each of the three grammatical persons:

• first-person pronouns normally refer to the speaker, in the case of the singular (as the English I), or to the speaker and others, in the case of the plural (as the English we).
• second-person pronouns normally refer to the person or persons being addressed (as the English you); in the plural they may also refer to the person or persons being addressed together with third parties.
• third-person pronouns normally refer to third parties other than the speaker or the person being addressed (as the English he, she, it, they).

As noted above, within each person there are often different forms for different grammatical numbers, especially singular and plural. Languages which have other numbers, such as dual (e.g. Slovene),^[3] may also have distinct pronouns for these.

Some languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns – those that do and do not include their audience. For example, Tok Pisin has seven first-person pronouns according to number (singular, dual, trial, plural) and clusivity, such as mitripela («they two and I») and yumitripela («you two and I»).^[4]

Some languages do not have third-person personal pronouns, instead using demonstratives (e.g. Macedonian)^[5] or full noun phrases. Latin used demonstratives rather than third-person pronouns (in fact the third-person pronouns in the Romance languages are descended from the Latin demonstratives).

In some cases personal pronouns can be used in place of indefinite pronouns, referring to someone unspecified or to people generally. In English and other languages the second-person pronoun can be used in this way: instead of the formal one should hold one’s oar in both hands (using the indefinite pronoun one), it is more common to say you should hold your oar in both hands.

Gender[edit]

«Gender pronoun» redirects here. For the term related to gender identity, see Preferred gender pronoun.

Personal pronouns, particularly those of the third person, differ depending on the gender of their antecedent or referent. This occurs in English with the third-person singular pronouns, where (simply put) he is used when referring to a man, she to a woman, singular they to a person whose gender is unknown or unspecified at the time that the pronoun is being used or to a person who does not identify as either a man or a woman, and it to something inanimate or an animal of unspecific sex. This is an example of pronoun selection based on natural gender; many languages also have selection based on grammatical gender (as in French, where the pronouns il and elle are used with masculine and feminine antecedents respectively, as are the plurals ils and elles). Sometimes natural and grammatical gender do not coincide, as with the German noun Mädchen («girl»), which is grammatically neuter but naturally feminine. (See Grammatical gender § Grammatical vs. natural gender for more details.)

Issues may arise when the referent is someone of unspecified or unknown gender. In a language such as English, it is derogatory to use the inanimate pronoun it to refer to a person (except in some cases to a small child), and although it is traditional to use the masculine he to refer to a person of unspecified gender, the movement towards gender-neutral language requires that another method be found, such as saying he or she. A common solution, particularly in informal language, is to use singular they. For more details see Gender in English.

Similar issues arise in some languages when referring to a group of mixed gender; these are dealt with according to the conventions of the language in question (in French, for example, the masculine ils «they» is used for a group containing both men and women or antecedents of both masculine and feminine gender).

A pronoun can still carry gender even if it does not inflect for it; for example, in the French sentence je suis petit («I am small») the speaker is male and so the pronoun je is masculine, whereas in je suis petite the speaker is female and the pronoun is treated as feminine, the feminine ending -e consequently being added to the predicate adjective.

On the other hand, many languages do not distinguish female and male in the third person pronoun.

Some languages have or had a non-gender-specific third person pronoun:

• Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian standards), Malagasy of Madagascar, Philippine languages, Māori, Rapa Nui, Hawaiian, and other Austronesian languages
• Chinese, Burmese, and other Sino-Tibetan languages
• Vietnamese and other Mon–Khmer languages
• Igbo, Yoruba, and other Volta-Niger languages
• Swahili, and other Bantu languages
• Haitian Creole
• Turkish and other Turkic languages
• Luo and other Nilo-Saharan languages
• Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, and other Uralic languages
• Hindi-Urdu
• Georgian
• Japanese
• Armenian
• Korean
• Mapudungun
• Basque
• Persian

Some of these languages started to distinguish gender in the third person pronoun due to influence from European languages.
Mandarin, for example, introduced, in the early 20th century a different character for she (她), which is pronounced identically as he (他) and thus is still indistinguishable in speech (tā).

Korean geunyeo (그녀) is found in writing to translate «she» from European languages. In the spoken language it still sounds awkward and rather unnatural, as it literally translates to «that female».^{[citation needed]}

Formality[edit]

Many languages have different pronouns, particularly in the second person, depending on the degree of formality or familiarity. It is common for different pronouns to be used when addressing friends, family, children and animals than when addressing superiors and adults with whom the speaker is less familiar. Examples of such languages include French, where the singular tu is used only for familiars, the plural vous being used as a singular in other cases (Russian follows a similar pattern); German, where the third-person plural sie (capitalized as Sie) is used as both singular and plural in the second person in non-familiar uses; and Polish, where the noun pan («gentleman») and its feminine and plural equivalents are used as polite second-person pronouns. For more details, see T–V distinction.

Some languages, such as Japanese, Korean and many Southeast Asian languages like Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian, have pronouns that reflect deep-seated societal categories. In these languages there is generally a small set of nouns that refer to the discourse participants, but these referential nouns are not usually used (pronoun avoidance), with proper nouns, deictics, and titles being used instead (and once the topic is understood, usually no explicit reference is made at all). A speaker chooses which word to use depending on the rank, job, age, gender, etc. of the speaker and the addressee. For instance, in Japanese, in formal situations, adults usually refer to themselves as watashi or the even more polite watakushi, while young men may use the student-like boku and police officers may use honkan («this officer»). In informal situations, women may use the colloquial atashi, and men may use the rougher ore.

Case[edit]

Pronouns also often take different forms based on their syntactic function, and in particular on their grammatical case. English distinguishes the nominative form (I, you, he, she, it, we, they), used principally as the subject of a verb, from the oblique form (me, you, him, her, it, us, them), used principally as the object of a verb or preposition. Languages whose nouns inflect for case often inflect their pronouns according to the same case system; for example, German personal pronouns have distinct nominative, genitive, dative and accusative forms (ich, meiner, mir, mich; etc.). Pronouns often retain more case distinctions than nouns – this is true of both German and English, and also of the Romance languages, which (with the exception of Romanian) have lost the Latin grammatical case for nouns, but preserve certain distinctions in the personal pronouns.

Other syntactic types of pronouns which may adopt distinct forms are disjunctive pronouns, used in isolation and in certain distinct positions (such as after a conjunction like and), and prepositional pronouns, used as the complement of a preposition.

Strong and weak forms[edit]

Some languages have strong and weak forms of personal pronouns, the former being used in positions with greater stress. Some authors further distinguish weak pronouns from clitic pronouns, which are phonetically less independent.^[6][7]

Examples are found in Polish, where the masculine third-person singular accusative and dative forms are jego and jemu (strong) and go and mu (weak). English has strong and weak pronunciations for some pronouns, such as them (pronounced /ðɛm/ when strong, but /ðəm/, /ɛm/, /əm/ or even /m̩/ when weak).

Free vs. bound pronouns[edit]

Some languages—for instance, most Australian Aboriginal languages—have distinct classes of free and bound pronouns. These are distinguished by their morphological independence/dependence on other words respectively. In Australian languages, it is common for free pronouns to be reserved exclusively for human (and sometimes other animate) referents.^[8] Examples of languages with animacy restrictions on free pronouns include Wanyjirra,^[9] Bilinarra,^[10] Warrongo,^[11] Guugu Yimidhirr^[12] and many others. Bound pronouns can take a variety of forms, including verbal prefixes (these are usually subject markers—see Bardi^[13]—but can mark objects as well—see Guniyandi^[14]), verbal enclitics (including possessive markers) and auxiliary morphemes. These various forms are exemplified below:

Free pronoun (Wangkatja^[15])

Verb prefix (Bardi^[13])

Enclitic (Ngiyambaa^[16])

Auxiliary morpheme (Wambaya^[17])

Possessive clitic (Ngaanyatjarra^[18])

Reflexive and possessive forms[edit]

Languages may also have reflexive pronouns (and sometimes reciprocal pronouns) closely linked to the personal pronouns. English has the reflexive forms myself, yourself, himself, herself, themself, theirself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, theirselves, themselves (there is also oneself, from the indefinite pronoun one). These are used mainly to replace the oblique form when referring to the same entity as the subject of the clause; they are also used as intensive pronoun (as in I did it myself).

Personal pronouns are also often associated with possessive forms. English has two sets of such forms: the possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives) my, your, his, her, its, our and their, and the possessive pronouns mine, yours, his, hers, its (rare), ours, theirs (for more details see English possessive). In informal usage both types of words may be called «possessive pronouns», even though the former kind do not function in place of nouns, but qualify a noun, and thus do not themselves function grammatically as pronouns.

Some languages, such as the Slavic languages, also have reflexive possessives (meaning «my own», «his own», etc.). These can be used to make a distinction from ordinary third-person possessives. For example, in Slovene:

Eva je dala Maji svojo knjigo («Eva gave Maja her [reflexive] book», i.e. Eva’s own book)

Eva je dala Maji njeno knjigo («Eva gave Maja her [non-reflexive] book», i.e. Maja’s book)

The same phenomenon occurs in the North Germanic languages, for example Danish, which can produce the sentences Anna gav Maria sin bog and Anna gav Maria hendes bog, the distinction being analogous to that in the Slovene example above.

Syntax[edit]

Antecedents[edit]

Third-person personal pronouns, and sometimes others, often have an explicit antecedent – a noun phrase which refers to the same person or thing as the pronoun (see anaphora). The antecedent usually precedes the pronoun, either in the same sentence or in a previous sentence (although in some cases the pronoun may come before the antecedent). The pronoun may then be said to «replace» or «stand for» the antecedent, and to be used so as to avoid repeating the antecedent. Some examples:

• John hid and we couldn’t find him. (John is the antecedent of him)
• After he lost his job, my father set up a small grocer’s shop. (my father is the antecedent of he, although it comes after the pronoun)
• We invited Mary and Tom. He came but she didn’t. (Mary is the antecedent of she, and Tom of he)
• I loved those bright orange socks. Can you lend them to me? (those bright orange socks is the antecedent of them)
• Jane and I went out cycling yesterday. We did 30 miles. (Jane and I is the antecedent of we)

Sometimes pronouns, even third-person ones, are used without specific antecedent, and the referent has to be deduced from the context. In other cases there may be ambiguity as to what the intended antecedent is:

• Alan was going to discuss it with Bob. He’s always dependable. (the meaning of he is ambiguous; the intended antecedent may be either Alan or Bob)

Pronoun dropping[edit]

In some languages, subject or object pronouns can be dropped in certain situations (see Pro-drop language). In particular, in a null-subject language, it is permissible for the subject of a verb to be omitted. Information about the grammatical person (and possibly gender) of the subject may then be provided by the form of the verb. In such languages it is common for personal pronouns to appear in subject position only if they are needed to resolve ambiguity or if they are stressed.

Dummy pronouns[edit]

In some cases pronouns are used purely because they are required by the rules of syntax, even though they do not refer to anything; they are then called dummy pronouns. This can be seen in English with the pronoun it in such sentences as it is raining and it is nice to relax. (This is less likely in pro-drop languages, since such pronouns would probably be omitted.)

Capitalization[edit]

Personal pronouns are not normally capitalized, except in particular cases. In English the first-person subject pronoun I is always capitalized, and in some Christian texts the personal pronouns referring to Jesus or God are capitalized (He, Thou, etc.).

In many European languages, but not English, the second-person pronouns are often capitalized for politeness when they refer to the person one is writing to (such as in a letter).

For details, see Capitalization § Pronouns.

Examples[edit]

• He shook her* hand.
• Why do you always rely on me to do your* homework for you?
• They tried to run away from the hunter, but he set his* dogs after them.

*Words like her, your and his are sometimes called (possessive) pronouns; other terms are possessive determiner or possessive adjective.

See also[edit]

• Deixis
• Gender-neutral pronoun
• Gender-specific pronoun
• Gender neutral language
• Generic antecedents
• Pronoun game
• Style (manner of address)
• Title
• Honorific
• Thai honorifics: Personal pronouns

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Gaynesford, M. de (2006). I: The Meaning of the First Person Term. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928782-6.