English personal pronouns

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The personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case. Modern English is a language with very little noun or adjective inflection, to the point where some authors describe it as analytic, but the English system of personal pronouns has preserved most of the inflectional complexity of Old English and Middle English.

Unlike English nouns, which are undeclined for case except for possession (woman/woman's), English pronouns have a number of forms or "cases" depending on their grammatical role in a sentence:

• a subjective case form (I/we/etc.), used as the subject of a finite verb
• an objective case form (me/us/etc.), used as the object of verb or of a preposition
• two possessive case forms (mine/ours/etc.), used to indicate the possessor of another noun. One form is used as a determiner, and the other is used as a pronoun or a predicate adjective

Basic personal pronouns of modern English

The basic personal pronouns of modern English are shown below. Possessive pronouns and adjectives are used to show possession.

Full list of personal pronouns

The following table shows the full list of English personal pronouns, including archaic and dialectal forms. Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that are preceded by the noun or pronoun to which they refer (their antecedent) within the same clause. For example, "She made the dress herself." "My son can tie his shoes by himself." "Mr. Jones, himself, gave the homeless man $50." "Oneself" is also a reflexive pronoun, as in, "After being severely injured, it is a major step in recovery to learn to feed oneself, again."

Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in italics.

For further archaic forms, and information on the evolution of the personal pronouns of English, see Old English pronouns.

I and me

• In modern English, me is often used as the predicative of the copula. In colloquial speech, it is also frequently used as a subject when the subject is the speaker himself or herself in certain kinds of sentences. See It is I/It is me for a more detailed discussion.

My and mine, thy and thine

• Historically, my comes from a reduction of mine, and well after the emergence of my, mine continued to be used instead of my before words beginning with vowel sounds (e.g., the first line of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”). Similarly with thy and thine.

We

• In English, the first-person plural pronoun, we, is used in both the inclusive sense (you and I) and exclusive sense (someone else and I but not you).

Ourself

• Ourself is used when we is semantically singular, but grammatically plural, as in the royal we and in the editorial we. However, there is the reflexive example of, "We, ourselves, are not pleased!"

You and ye

• Historically, you was an object pronoun, and ye was its subject counterpart; today, you fills both roles in Standard English, though some dialects use ye for the two roles, and some use ye as an apocopated or clitic form of you.
• The only common distinction between singular and plural you is in the reflexive and emphatic forms.
• You and its variants can sometimes be used in a generic sense. See Generic you.

Thou

• Sometime between 1600 and 1800, the various second-person singular forms of thou began to pass out of common usage in most places, except in poetry, archaic-style literature, public prayer, and descriptions of other languages' pronouns. Thou refers to one person who is familiar, as in a friend or family, and also for a person who is being insulted or disrespected (since the formal form implies a degree of respect). Also, as in other European languages, the familiar form is used (presumably as for family and intimates) when speaking to God in prayer. Today almost all have disappeared from Standard English. A few dialects retain them.
• Thou still exists in parts of England and Scotland, and in some Christian religious communities. See Thou, for further information.

Other second person pronouns

• While formal Standard English uses you for both singular and plural, many dialects use various special forms for the plural, such as y'all (short for "you all"), you guys, yinz (short for "you ones"), and yous (also spelled youse). Corresponding reflexive and possessive pronouns are often used as well.
• In Scotland, yous is often used for the second person plural (particularly in the Central Belt area). However, in some parts of the country, ye is used for the plural you. In older times and in some other places today, ye is the nominative case and you is the accusative case. Some English dialects generalised ye, while standard English generalised you. Some dialects use ye as a clipped or weak form of you.

He and she

• He and she may be used for animals as well as humans, and sometimes for inanimate objects (for example, ships and countries may be referred to as she).

His and its

• Historically, his was the possessive of it as well of he; nowadays it has been completely supplanted by its.

One

• In informal usage, English speakers often use you instead of one; for example "If one is kind to others..." becomes "If you're kind to others...".

Third person plural

• Historically the forms they, their, and them are of Scandinavian origin (from the Viking invasions and settlement in northeastern England during the Danelaw period from the 9th to the 11th centuries).^[1]
• The third person plural form 'em is believed to be a survival of the late Old English form heom, which appears as hem in Chaucer, and has apparently lost its aspiration due to being used as an unstressed form.
• The forms of they are also sometimes used with grammatically or semantically singular antecedents, though it is a matter of some dispute whether and when such usage is acceptable. When this is the case, they takes a plural verb, but themselves with a singular sense is often changed to themself.
• Although grammarians and usage writers often condemn the use of the "singular they" when the gender is unknown or unimportant, this is often used, both in speech and in writing (e.g. "If a customer requires help, they should contact..."). In fact, a consistent pattern of usage can be traced at least as far back as Shakespeare, and possibly even back to Middle English. It avoids awkward constructions such as he or she. This usage is authorised and preferred by the Australian Government Manual of Style for official usage in government documents. See Singular they. The use of the "singular they" can often be avoided by thinking ahead and rephrasing the whole sentence.

See also

• Disjunctive pronoun
• Generic antecedents
• Gender-neutral pronoun
• Gender-specific pronoun
• Old English pronouns
• One (pronoun)
• Personal pronoun
• Wiktionary table of personal pronouns

References