Month: May 2017

All about personal pronouns.

All children use pronouns without even thinking.

The important thing is that they recognise the words in the table below as being pronouns and not particularly that they know all the jargon and the technical, grammar nerd differences between them.

Personal pronouns are used to represent people or objects, animals, etc. The personal pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we and they.

Native English speakers will get the right personal pronoun without thinking but we all select a personal pronoun having automatically considered the following:

• Number – is the personal pronoun representing something singular or plural.
• Person – Is the personal pronoun representing something in the first, second or third person
• Gender – is the personal pronoun representing something male, female, or without any gender.
• Case – is the personal pronoun representing something which is a subject or an object?

The Personal Pronouns and Their Possessive Versions

Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case Absolute Possessive Pronouns	Possessive Case Possessive Adjective
First Person Singular	I	me	mine	my
Second Person Singular	you	you	yours	your
Third Person Singular	he she it	him her it	his hers its	his her its
First Person Plural	we	us	ours	our
Second Person Plural	you	you	yours	your
Third Person Plural	they	them	theirs	their

Subjective Personal Pronouns

The pronouns in the list above which are the pronouns we use  for the subjects of verbs. They are I, you, he, she, it, we and they.

He is silly.
They are going to the cinema

Objective Personal Pronouns

The objective personal pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

These are the versions used when the personal pronouns are objects of verbs:

• I have never heard of him.
• Mum gave them some sandwiches.
• Suzanne had a dog and took it to school.

Possessive Case Absolute Possessive Pronouns

These are : my, your, his, hers, its, our and their.

• You can’t borrow that pen because it’s mine.
• I cant find mobile can I borrow yours?
• My sister’s house is bigger than ours.

Possessive Case Possessive Adjectives

Obviously these are adjectives not pronouns but I include them hare cos it’s related and it feels right that I should:

• Have you seen my cat?
• Every dog has its day.
• Dad gave the children their tea because mum was out.

All about Pronouns

A pronoun is used in place of a noun that has already been mentioned or that is already known, to help avoid repetition.

• Pete was happy so he jumped for joy.
• Alice took the dog with her to school.
• Albert’s dinner looked much tastier than ours.
• That is a silly thing to say.
• Somethinghas to change.

One of the main issues that I have come across in children writing is the problem of the unassigned pronoun – that is, a pronoun usesd when it is unclear as to which noun it is replacing.

• The dogs were taken to the park by Sharon and her brother so that they could get some exercise.
• John and his brother fell out when he found out that he had broken his iPad

So who is intended to benefit from the exercise in the above sentence, the dogs or the children..? Who broke the iPad and to whom did it belong?

There is a detailed explanation at chomp chomp.com of the whole issue and hoe to avoid it – its probably much more than primary age children need to be concerned with, but it is interesting and amusing…

The section that follows on pronouns will lay out the different types of pronoun and, hopefully, help in avoiding some of the pitfalls that lead to ambiguity when writing.