Pronouns
He
We
Ourselves
I
Us
Who/
Whom
What are pronouns?
Pronouns take the
place of nouns. The
word or phrase
replaced by a pronoun
is called an
antecedent.
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Antecedent Rules


A pronoun is a word that takes the
place of a noun or another pronoun.
A pronoun must agree with its
antecedent (the noun or other
pronoun in the sentence that it
refers to) in person, number, and
gender.
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Example:
 Halloween
is one of
America's holidays. It is
celebrated in October.
 Halloween
is a noun.
It is a pronoun that refers
to the antecedent,
Halloween.
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Term: Antecedent
The rule is that a pronoun refers
to the closest preceding logical
noun.
John loved only himself.
 The little dog caught the frisbee all
by herself. She caught it!
 Danni and Sam stepped off the
curb. The car almost hit them.

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Example:
When Robert was fixing the
car, he cut his hand.
(Robert is a noun. He is a
pronoun that refers to the
antecedent, Robert.)
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Pronouns =
People, places, or things
Include: I, me, my, mine,
you, your, yours, he, him, his,
she, her, hers, it, its, they,
them, their, mine, theirs, we,
us, our, ours, ourselves,
myself, whose, whom, etc.
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Examples:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The ghosts who hang
out with Casper are cute.
Their main objective is to scare the
superstitious.
Few are really scared of them.
They sometimes scared themselves
though.
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Objects: who/whom
The ghosts who hang out with Casper
are cute. Why not whom? The word who
just restates the subject of the sentence,
which is ghosts. Objects:
The ghosts, of whom there are few, are
cute. Who is cutest?
Whom do you like best, Casper or the
other ghosts? Casper! Who?!
Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters!
(Why? It’s informal speech, not
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professional speech
or writing.)
Subject/object/reflexives
1.
2.
3.
4.
Subject acts: They scared Jim.
Possessive subject: Ghost’s
objective= Their main objective is to
scare the superstitious.
Objects are acted upon: Few are
really scared of them.
Reflexives snap back: They
sometimes scared themselves
though.
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Now you try. Can you see why the red ones
are incorrect?
A.
B.
C.
Jeff rides his new bike. Him
rides it down the block.
Rickie gets on the plane. They
are very excited about his trip.
Jack and myself fell down the
hill.
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Why?
1.
2.
Him rides it down the block.
Here, the pronoun is an object
or person done to, not the actor
(subject). The pronoun he is
needed instead.
They are very excited about
his trip. Who the heck are
they? A noun antecedent
needs to come first.
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Why reflexives?

Jack and myself fell down the hill.




There is no noun antecedent.
Jill explained: Jack and I fell down the hill.
That’s how I hurt myself.
This kind of pronoun is called a
reflexive: myself, himself, herself,
itself, ourselves, themselves, yourself,
yourselves. It must be preceded by a
referent. I hurt myself. He hit himself.
Never in professional communication:
Jack and myselfENGL316
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Pronouns must agree with their
nouns in terms of number.

Easy:


Jack and Jill fell down. They (or we if one of
them is speaking) fell down. There are two of
them, so the pronoun must be plural.
Trickier: Is it his or her or their?


No one on this bus seems to know ______ way
around this part of New York City.
Careful writers would use his or her because
No one is singular. It would be considered
permissible, however, to use their in everyday
speech.
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Compounds:
How would you handle this?


My grandmother really loved Juan.
She left all her money to Federico
and _______ . (he/him)
Him. When you compound a
pronoun with something else (even
Federico!), don't change its form.
When in doubt, just eliminate poor
Federico for the moment and you’ll
usually get it right: She left all her
money to him.
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Gender and pronouns


A student in that all-women's college
should have no fears about ________
future. (her/their)
The singular "student" requires a singular
pronoun, "her" (we’ve established it’s not
a guy). In everyday speech, people are
sometimes using ‘they’ as a singular to
avoid gender bias. Don’t ever use it in
formal professional writing. Another way
out: go plural, students … they.
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Who vs. whom


He was so worried about ________ he
should ask to the big event, that he
ended up not asking anyone.
(who/whom)
Whom. Try turning it around. Who goes
with she, he, they, while whom goes with
her, him, them.



Should he ask Jack or Jill? Ask him or her?
He should ask her. Ask whom?
Whom should he ask?
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Subject/Object: complex situations


Neither Tashonda nor _____ am
responsible for this mess. (I/me)
You need the subject form of the
first-person pronoun here: I. As
with the last slide, use the
substitution and paring away
strategy.



Bonnie is responsible.
I am responsible.
Toshoda and I am resonsible.
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Another compound.



This is a matter for you and
_______ to decide. (I/me)
When we compound a pronoun with
something else, we don't change its
form!
Here you need the object form, the
object of the preposition for: me.
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Writing vs. Speech



Everybody in this class has
completed ________ homework
already. Is it his or her or their?
Everybody is singular (even though
it seems to be talking about more
than one person).
Usage on this is changing: it is now
acceptable to say their in this
sentence in speech. Careful writers
would continue to use his or her.
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