What’s the Case?
The Three Cases of a Personal Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Nouns name any person,
place, or thing. Pronouns stand for people or things too. The difference is that
pronouns do not name them.

John and Tom learned how to blaze a trail at Camp Hidden Hollow.
John and Tom are nouns. To rewrite the sentence using pronouns, we would use
a pronoun to take the place of the boys’ names.

They learned how to blaze a trail at Camp Hidden Hollow.
Personal pronouns take the place of a noun that names people or sometimes
things. They can be used as either the subject or the object of a sentence. When
learning about personal pronouns, it is important to learn about case. Personal
pronouns have three cases:
1. subject pronouns are used as the subject of a sentence or as a predicate
noun.
2. object pronouns are used as either a direct object, indirect object or the
object of a preposition.
3. possessive pronouns are used to show ownership. They show that
something belongs to someone. They take the place of possessive nouns.

Cathy’s kite flew higher than Chuck’s kite.
Cathy’s and Chuck’s are possessive nouns. They show that the kites belong to
Cathy and Chuck. If we rewrite the sentence using possessive pronouns, it comes
out like this:

Her kite flew higher than his kite.
Her and his are possessive pronouns. They show ownership.
Here are some possessive pronouns:


her, his, its, my, our, their, your
hers, mine, ours, yours, theirs
Possessive pronouns can be used in front of a noun or they can stand alone.


My watch is slow.
The watch is mine.
When we make a noun possessive, we use an apostrophe. For example:
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
Shelly’s coat fell off the coat hook.
We use the apostrophe to show the coat belongs to Shelly.
When we use a possessive pronoun, we never use an apostrophe.


Shelly’s coat lost its buttons. Correct
Shelly’s coat lost it’s buttons. Incorrect
It’s with an apostrophe is a shortened form of it is.


I ate my piece of cake. Yours is in the cake box. Correct
I ate my piece of cake. Your’s is in the cake box. Incorrect
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Activities
Activity A: Fill in the blanks with the correct answer.
1. Personal pronouns have three cases. What are they?
________________ _____________________ ______________________
2. _____________ are used as the subject of a sentence or as a predicate noun.
3. _______________can be used as either a direct, indirect or preposition object.
4. ______________ are used to show ownership. They replace possessive nouns.
Activity B: Let’s use possessive pronouns. The possessive pronouns in the
following sentences are used incorrectly. Rewrite the sentences using the correct
form of the underlined pronoun. Hint: Remember the rule about apostrophes.
1. That book is her’s.
_____________________________________________________________
2. Their’s is the cabin on the right.
_____________________________________________________________
3. Those cakes are our’s.
_____________________________________________________________
Activity C: More possessive pronoun practice. Fill in the blanks with a possessive
pronoun from this list. Use each word only once.

me, mine, his, our, hers, its, their
1. Do you like ___________________________________?
2. ________________________ chore is to clean out the garage.
3. _________________________ house is the largest in our neighborhood.
4. That coloring book is __________________________
5. The red coat is not _______________________________________.
6. My suitcase lost _____________________ zipper.
7. ___________________________ cakes are always the tastiest.
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Answer Key
Activity A
1. Personal pronouns have three cases. What are they?
Subject Object Possessive
2. Subject pronouns are used as the subject of a sentence or as a predicate noun.
3. Object pronouns can be used as either a direct, indirect, or preposition object.
4. Possessive pronouns are used to show ownership. They replace possessive
nouns.
Activity B
1. That book is hers.
2. Theirs is the cabin on the right.
3. Those cakes are ours.
Activity C
Answers to some questions will vary. As long as students use each pronoun only
once, the answers will be correct.
1. Do you like me?
2. His chore is to clean out the garage. (Our or their could also be correct.)
3. Our house is the largest in the neighborhood. (His or their could also be correct.)
4. That coloring book is mine. (His or hers could also be correct.)
5. The red coat is not hers (Mine or his could also be correct.)
6. My suitcase lost its zipper.
7. Their cakes are always the tastiest. (His or our could also be correct.)
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