Basic grammar rules: Personal pronouns

Basic grammar rules: personal pronouns (me, you, him…)

 

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Feel free to leave a comment if you find any errors or if you have any suggestions to make to improve this lesson.




In this lesson we will see the personal pronoun in English (subjects and complements).

1/ Subject personal pronouns (or subject pronouns)

They are used to replace a name. Practical if you don’t want to repeat it over and over again….

  • I
  • you
  • he / she / it
  • we
  • you
  • they

Examples:

  • I like coffee.
  • He is a doctor.
  • She is clever.
  • It doesn’t work.
  • We go to school.
  • Paul went to the cinema. He watched the new Star Wars. Then, he went to the restaurant. → The subject pronoun “He” therefore avoids putting “Paul” in each sentence.

⚠️ ‘I’ is always written in capital letters!

⚠️ ‘it’ is neutral and refers to objects or animals. However, sometimes we can use’he’ or’she’ to talk about a domestic animal, a boat, a motorcycle… a thing or an animal that we are close to and that we can consider as a girl or a boy.

⚠️ ‘it‘ is also used to make a comment, or to talk about time, temperature, time or distance:

Examples:

  • It‘s raining.
  • It‘s difficult to find a job.
    It is important to dress well.
  • It will probably be cold tomorrow.
  • Is it eight o’clock yet?
  • It‘s 50 kilometres from here to London.

⚠️ We use ‘we’ to talk about ‘us’:

  • We like soccer.

2/ Complementary personal pronouns (or complementary pronouns)

  • me
  • you
  • him
  • her
  • it
  • us
  • you
  • them

Examples:

  • It’s me, Mario !
  • I told you !
  • Give her a beer
  • Who is it ? That’s us !
  • The teacher always give them homework.
  • Where’s the phone ? It’s next to him.
  • She’s writing a letter to you.
  • Here’s your present. Open it!
  • John helped me.

⚠️ Always put the personal pronoun complement behind the verb.

⚠️ ‘I’ or ‘Me’?

  • Tom and I are going to Paris in August → Why not ‘Tom and me‘ ? Because ‘I’ is part of the subject of the sentence.
  • They gave the job to me. → Why not ‘I‘? Because ‘me’ is the object of the sentence.

 

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