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The main function of the personal pronoun is to take the place of a noun in a sentence.

It can
be used as a subject or an object (direct, indirect, object of the preposition) in a text/speech, and
can serve as a good way to help you avoid repetition of specific nouns.

Types of Pronouns: Personal Pronouns | Part of Speech

Personal, Possessive & Indefinite Pronouns. Personal Pronouns. A personal pronoun can
refer to the person or people speaking ("first person"), spoken to ("second person") or
spoken about ("third person"). Personal pronouns have distinct forms for each of these three
"persons", as well as for singular and plural: ...Jun 4, 1999

1.2d - Personal, Possessive and Indefinite Pronouns


https://english.ucalgary.ca/grammar/course/speech/1_2d.htm

Types of Pronouns
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A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so
that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over
and over in a paragraph. Some examples of pronouns
include I, me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and ourselves.
You may have noticed that they tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the
same person, group or thing.
 He, him, his and himself, for example, all refer to a male person or
something belonging to him
 They, them, theirs and themselves all refer to a group or something
belonging to a group, and so on.
The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a
different purpose in a sentence.

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he,
she, it, they, we, and you. Example: “They went to the store.”
Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb,
preposition, or infinitive phrase. They are: me, her, him, it, you, them, and us.
Example: “David gave the gift to her.”

Subjective
Subject pronouns are often (but not always) found at the beginning of a
sentence. More precisely, the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that
lives out the verb.
 I owe that person $3,000. – I am living out that debt. I is the subject
pronoun.
 He and I had a fight. – This sentence has two subjects
because he and I were both involved in the fight.
 He broke my kneecaps. – You get the idea.
 To him, I must now pay my children's college funds. – If you'll notice, the
verb in this sentence – the action – is "pay." Although I is not at the
beginning of the sentence, it is the person living out the action and is,
therefore, the subject.
Objective
By contrast, objects and object pronouns indicate the recipient of an action or
motion. They come after verbs and prepositions (to, with, for, at, on, beside,
under, around, etc.).
 The guy I borrowed money from showed me a crowbar and told me to
pay him immediately.
 I begged him for more time.
 He said he'd given me enough time already.
 I tried to dodge the crowbar, but he hit me with it anyway.
 Just then, the police arrived and arrested us.
Subject vs. Object Pronouns
There is often confusion over which pronouns you should use when you are one
half of a dual subject or object. For example, should you say:
 "Me and him had a fight." or "He and I had a fight?"
 "The police arrested me and him." or "The police arrested he and I?"
Some people will tell you that you should always put the other person first and
refer to yourself as "I" because it's more proper, but those people are wrong. You
can put the other person first out of politeness, but you should always use the
correct pronouns (subject or object) for the sentence.
A good test to decide which one you need is to try the sentence with one
pronoun at a time. Would you say, "Me had a fight?" Of course not. You'd say, "I
had a fight." What about, "Him had a fight?" No, you'd say, "He had a fight." So
when you put the two subjects together, you get, "He and I had a fight." The
same rule applies to the other example. You wouldn't say, "The police arrested he," or,
"The police arrested I." You would use "him" and "me."

So the correct sentence is, "The police arrested me and him."

Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns show ownership. The term covers both possessive
pronouns and possessive adjectives.
Absolute possessive pronouns – mine, yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, its – are truly pronouns
because they refer to a previously named or understood noun. They stand alone, not
followed by any other noun. Take a look at this sentence:

 You have your vices, and I have mine.


There are two types of pronouns here: personal (you/I) and possessive (mine). There's also a
possessive adjective (your).
Your is followed by the noun vices, so although we know that your refers to you, it is not the
noun or the noun substitute (pronoun). Vices is the noun. In the second half of the sentence,
however, the noun and the possessive adjective have both been replaced with one word –
the pronoun, mine. Because it stands in the place of the noun, mine is an absolute pronoun
whereas your is a possessive adjective that must be followed by a noun.

Pronominal possessive adjectives include: my, your, our, their, his, her and its. They are
used as pronouns as they refer to an understood noun, showing possession by that noun of
something. They are technically adjectives, though, because they modify a noun that follows
them.

 My money is all gone.


 I gambled it all away on your race horse.
 His jockey was too fat.
In all of these examples, there is a noun (money, race horse, jockey) that has
not been replaced with a pronoun. Instead, an adjective is there to show whose
money, horse and jockey we’re talking about.
Indefinite Pronouns
These pronouns do not point to any particular nouns, but refer to things or
people in general. Some of them are: few, everyone, all, some,
anything, and nobody.
 Everyone is already here.

Relative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun.
These are: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, and that.
 The driver who ran the stop sign was careless.

Intensive Pronouns
These pronouns are used to emphasize a noun or pronoun. These are: myself,
himself, herself, themselves, itself, yourself, yourselves, and ourselves.
 He himself is his worst critic.

Demonstrative Pronouns
There are five demonstrative pronouns: these, those, this, that, and such. They
focus attention on the nouns that are replacing.
 Such was his understanding.
 Those are totally awesome.

Interrogative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to begin a question: who, whom, which, what,
whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever.
 What are you bringing to the party?

Reflexive Pronouns
There is one more type of pronoun, and that is the reflexive pronoun. These are
the ones that end in “self” or "selves." They are object pronouns that we use
when the subject and the object are the same noun.
 I told myself not to spend all my money on new shoes.
 My friend really hurt himself when he tripped on the stairs.
We also use them to emphasize the subject.
 Usually, the guy I borrowed the money from will send an employee to
collect the money, but since I owed so much, he himself came to my house.
Examples of Pronouns in Context
Now see if you can find all the pronouns and possessive adjectives in this
paragraph:
No matter what your teachers may have taught you about pronouns, the I's
don't always have it. If your teachers ever warned you about the evils of
gambling, however, they were right about that. You don't want someone
breaking your kneecaps with his crowbar; it will hurt, the police might arrest
you, and you may never forgive yourself.

Read more at http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-


speech/pronouns/types-of-pronouns.html#FzTrO82d8eeLETWs.99

Types of Pronouns: Personal


Pronouns
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One of the most common parts of speech used in everyday conversation
and writing, whether formal or informal, is the pronoun. In this article, the
most common type of pronoun will be discussed—the personal pronoun.

Definition of Personal Pronouns


Personal pronouns can be simply defined as the type of pronouns used to
replace a specific noun in a sentence. It can be used to take the place of
a person, an animal, a thing, or a place, in order to avoid stating the same
noun over and over again in the same text.

Explanation of Personal Pronouns


In a sentence, a personal pronoun can be used in place of a noun that is
mentioned earlier in that sentence. You should also know that personal
pronouns can have two functions—they can act as either the subject or
the object in the sentence. With this, it can be further categorized into
two kinds: the subjective personal pronoun (used as the subject) and
the objective personal pronoun (used as the direct object, indirect object,
or object of the preposition).
In order to use personal pronouns effectively and avoid confusion, you
must make sure that the personal pronoun that you will use agrees in
number (singular: I, you, me, she, he, it, him, her; plural: you, they, we,
them, us), gender (feminine, masculine, neuter), and person (first person,
second person, third person).
Examples of Personal Pronouns

The underlined words in the sample sentences below show how personal
pronouns are used.

 He bought a new gaming laptop.


 Can you take him to the hospital?
 You gotta be kidding me!
 Honestly, I think he won’t make it.
 They are the worst groupmates I ever had!
 Will you join with us?
 She pushed the little kid down the stairs.
 We are going to the coffee shop. Do you want to come with us?
 Michael and I got it from the novelty shop.
 Get them something to drink.
Examples of Personal Pronouns in Literature
All of the sentences from famous literary works provided below contain
examples of personal pronouns (underlined words).

 “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to


another: “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”” – C.S
Lewis, The Four Loves
 “You love me. Real or not real?”
I tell him, “Real.” – Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
 “That’s the thing about pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back
at me. “It demands to be felt.” – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
 “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be
repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and
love you.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
 “So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to
help me find you.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
 “I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is
what happens when you‘re alive and that youmight as well lie back
and enjoy it.” – Neil Gaiman, American Gods
 “Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I‘ve
never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied
Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.” – E.B
White, Charlotte’s Web
 “What I want is to be needed. What I need is to be indispensable to
somebody. Who I need is somebody that will eat up all my free time,
my ego, my attention. Somebody addicted to me. A mutual addiction.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
 “Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I‘ve
ever known.” – Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
 “It‘s just that I don’t want to be somebody’s crush. If somebody
likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am.
And I don’t want them to carry it around inside. I want them to
show me, so I can feel it too.” – Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being
a Wallflower
Function of Personal Pronouns
The main function of the personal pronoun is to take the place of a noun
in a sentence. It can be used as a subject or an object (direct, indirect,
object of the preposition) in a text/speech, and can serve as a good way
to help you avoid repetition of specific nouns. Thus, it can be considered
as a tool that can help ease the flow of words and sentences in your
speech or writing.

Ffirst-Person Pronouns
Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms
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Examples of first-person pronouns in a song composed by George Harrison and performed by the
Beatles on the album Let It Be (1970). (Keystone/Getty Images)
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by Richard Nordquist

Updated August 10, 2017

In English grammar, first-person pronouns are pronouns that refer to the speaker or
writer (singular) or to a group that includes the speaker or writer (plural).

In contemporary standard English, these are the first-person pronouns:

 I (singular personal pronoun in the subjective case)

 we (plural personal pronoun in the subjective case)

 me (singular personal pronoun in the objective case)

 us (plural personal pronoun in the objective case)


 mine and ours (singular and plural possessive pronouns)

 myself and ourselves (singular and plural reflexive/intensive pronouns)

In addition, my and our are the singular and plural first-person possessive determiners.

Examples and Observations

 "He shines the light along the strand to find our footprints and follow them back, but the
only prints he can find are mine. 'You must have carried me there,' he says.

"I laugh at the thought of my carrying him, at the impossibility, then realize that it was a
joke, and I got it.

"When the moon comes out again, he turns the lamp off and we easily find the
path we took through the dunes."
(Claire Keegan, "Foster." The Best American Short Stories 2011, ed. by Geraldine Brooks.
Houghton Mifflin, 2011)

 "Our people have a saying 'Ours is ours, but mine is mine.' Every town and village
struggles at this momentous epoch in our political evolution to possess that of which it
can say: 'This is mine.' We are happy today that we have such an invaluable possession in
the person of our illustrious son and guest of honor."
(Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease. Heinemann, 1960)

 "I took her back to my room, where we passed a celibate night, Clara sleeping fitfully in
my arms. In the morning she asked me to be a sweetheart and fetch her canvases and
drawings and notebooks and suitcases from Le Grand Hôtel Excelsior."
(Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version. Chatto & Windus, 1997)

 "It is one thing to believe in a nice old God who will take good care of us from a lofty
position of power which we ourselves could never begin to attain."
(M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled. Simon & Schuster, 1978)

 "[I]nside my soul I don't conform: can't conform. They would all like to kill the non-
conforming me. Which is me myself."
(D.H. Lawrence, The Boy in the Bush, 1924)

 The Absence of First-Person Pronouns in Academic Writing


- "In written text, the uses of first-person pronouns usually mark
personal narratives and/or examples that are often considered inappropriate
in academic writing. Many researchers of academic discourse and prose have noted the
highly depersonalized and objective character of academic prose that requires 'author
evacuation' (Johns, 1997, p. 57)."
(Eli Hinkel, Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and
Grammar. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004)

- "In your papers, the focus is on the ideas—not on you. Consequently, you should limit
your use of first person pronouns such as 'I.' In formal papers, you are not to speak
directly to the reader, so you should not use 'you' or any other second person pronouns."
(Mark L. Mitchell, Janina M. Jolley, and Robert P. O'Shea, Writing for Psychology, 3rd
ed. Wadsworth, 2010)

 Use of Myself (Instead of Me) as a Personal Pronoun

I will work hard to make sure that the transition from myself to the next President is a
good one.

That was an unstylish, though not incorrect, use of 'myself'; the better word is 'me.' Use
'myself' as an intensifier (I myself prefer 'me'), as a reflexive ('I misspoke myself,' as
press secretaries say), but not as a cutesy turning away from the harsh 'me.'"
(William Safire, The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 1, 1981)

. . . with Dorothy Thompson and myself among the speakers — Alexander Woolcott,
letter, 11 Nov. 1940

There are also two captions for Hokinson, one by myself and one by my secretary
— James Thurber, letter, 20 Aug. 1948
Indeed I hope that you will have time, amongst your numerous engagements, to have a
meal with my wife and myself — T.S. Eliot, letter, 7 May 1957 . . .

The evidence should make it plain that the practice of substituting myself or other
reflexive pronouns for ordinary personal pronouns is not new . . . and is not rare. It is
true that many of the examples are from speech and personal letters, suggesting
familiarity and informality. But the practice is by no means limited to informal contexts.
Only the use of myself as sole subject of a sentence seems to be restricted . . .."
(Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. Merriam-Webster, 1994)

 First-Person Pronouns and Language Acquisition


"Parent report data in a [Japanese] study by [M.] Seki [1992] indicated that 96% of the
children between 18 and 23 months called themselves by their own names but none of
them used first person pronouns to designate themselves.

"Since many English-speaking children begin using personal pronouns at around 20


months, the data from Japanese children together with my English data suggest that
children know their own name as well as others' names before they begin to use any
personal pronouns and may use their knowledge about proper names to identify the
pronoun forms in utterances."
(Yuriko Oshima-Takane, "The Learning of First and Second Person Pronouns in
English." Language, Logic, and Concepts, ed. by Ray Jackendoff, Paul Bloom, and Karen
Wynn. MIT Press, 2002)

 Mine and My
- "I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree
And wore them all that evening in my hair."
(Christina Georgina Rossetti, "An Apple Gathering," 1863)

- "I saw the archangels in my apple-tree last night"


(Nancy Campbell, "The Apple-Tree," 1917)

- "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
(Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," 1862)

- "Doctor, my eyes have seen the pain of a lying diamond."


(Penn Jillette, Sock. St. Martin's Press, 2004)

"In OE, the form min . . . had been used both adjectivally and pronominally.
In ME, my (or mi) began to appear as the adjective form used before a word beginning
with a consonant, while min was used before words beginning with a vowel and as the
absolute (or pronominal) form. In EMnE [Early Modern English], my generalized as the
adjective form in all environments, and minebecame reserved for pronominal functions,
the present distribution of the two."
(C.M. Millward, A Biography of the English Language, 2nd ed. Harcourt Brace, 1996)
ronouns, pronouns, pronouns...

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