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If you think back to the parts of speech, you’ll remember that a pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun or noun phrase.
If that pronoun is standing in for something else, you need to be sure that you select the correct pronoun to match what it’s meant to replace.
In other words, when you’re thinking about pronoun choice, you should be thinking about finding the right pronoun to function as you need it to in that sentence.
Pronoun choice is particularly important when you’re using personal pronouns, which are pronouns that identify gender, person, number, and case.
If a pronoun stands in for any noun, personal pronouns stand in for a specific person or thing.
EXAMPLE
The sentence "Mary is a fast runner" becomes "She is a fast runner" when a personal pronoun is used. "She" replaces Mary’s name, thereby representing her.There are a few different kinds of personal pronouns:
Pronouns that always show possession don’t use an apostrophe, such as the pronouns "my/mine" or "her/hers."
EXAMPLE
You can see that at work in sentences such as "That rabbit is mine" and "Those rabbits are hers."If you were using the person’s name instead of the possessive pronoun, you would use an apostrophe to indicate possession.
EXAMPLE
That is Mary's rabbit.Another way that pronouns are used is as subjects. The subject is who or what the sentence is about. Therefore, the subject pronoun is also what the sentence will be about.
Some personal pronouns are just for subjects, such as "I," "he," "she," "it," "they," "we," and "who."
EXAMPLE
Sentences that use these will look something like "She is going to be president" or "We are going to vote."In other circumstances, you might have compound subjects, meaning there’s a whole phrase that the sentence is about. How do you choose which pronoun to use as the subject in one of these compound constructions?
The rule is that you should use the same pronoun you would use if it alone were the subject.
EXAMPLE
If the sentence is "The dog and I are going for a walk," you wouldn’t say, "Me are going for a walk." You would say, "I am going for a walk." By the same token, you wouldn’t write, "The dog and me are going for a walk." You’d write, "The dog and I are going for a walk."IN CONTEXT
The singular they refers to one person instead of multiple people. It can be used in two main ways.
They/them pronouns are commonly used when the gender of an individual is unknown.
EXAMPLE
"Someone didn’t clean up after their dog!"
More recently, they/them has also been used by individuals who do not strictly identify as male or female.
EXAMPLE
"River is at the store and they want to know if we’re out of milk."
The main difference between how singular they is used compared to other gendered pronouns, such as he/him or she/her, is that it is treated as plural even though they refers to a single person.
Other times, pronouns function as objects within sentences. An object in a sentence is the item acted upon by the subject.
Some pronouns, such as "me," "her," "him," "them," "us," and "whom," are always used for the object of a sentence.
EXAMPLE
Sentences that use these will look something like "The teacher brought us doughnuts this morning" or "The dog gave me a big kiss on the mouth."As you can see, the object in both of these sentences is the thing being affected by the verb. That’s how the object functions.
However, objects can also complete the meaning of a prepositional phrase.
EXAMPLE
Samantha sat between Richard and me at the concert.In this context, the preposition is "between," and "me" answers the question, "Between who?"
Some pronouns can work for either subjects or objects, such as the pronouns "you" and "it."
EXAMPLE
It is too early for loud music.The “it” there is the subject of the sentence, but it can also be used for an object.
EXAMPLE
My sister loves lasagna, but I don't like it.The "it" replaces "lasagna," and is the object of the verb "like."
You therefore need to watch how you use object pronouns and subject pronouns, making sure that you’re using them correctly without leading to any unintended meaning.
To understand how to identify and correct errors, it’s helpful to view these issues in the context of a piece of writing.
What errors can you find? First, highlight all the pronouns you see.
That first sentence is correct, but you can see a problem with “he and me” in the second sentence: We went to the beach; he and me had to climb a big hill to get down to it.
Would you say, "He had to climb"? Yes. But would you say, "Me had to climb"? No. Thus, the pronouns should be "he" and "I" for this compound subject.
In that same sentence, the word "it" at the end is an object pronoun: We went to the beach; he and I had to climb a big hill to get down to it.
Is this used correctly? The sentence is saying that the subjects are climbing down the hill to the beach. In this case, "it" stands in for "beach." That’s correct, as are the other pronouns in the next sentence.
But now look at this clause: Then we saw another dog and her owner, and it turned out that the ball was her's...
"Hers" is a possessive pronoun. The owner belongs to the dog, or perhaps vice versa. That’s phrased correctly, but in this possessive pronoun, the ball also belongs to the dog. Do you use an apostrophe on possessive pronouns? No, so this should be "hers."
Here’s another error: But they gave the ball to he, and everyone played happily.
The verb is "give," and the subject is "they," doing the giving. "They" is a subject pronoun, so that is correct. But what about "he"? That’s also a subject pronoun, but in this sentence construction, the dog is the object. Therefore, this should be "They gave the ball to him."
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