We have already seen Pro-Noun stands for a Noun.
Personal Pronoun stand for Persons.
There are three kinds
Singular Plural
First Person I We
Second Person You You
Third Person He / She/ It They
Note that you is the same for Singular and Plural.
I, you can refer to both Male and Female.
In third person, He and She refers to Gender, while IT refers to NEUTER GENDER (without life). Plural THEY is used for all the three, HE / SHE / IT in Third Person.
DIFFERENT FORMS OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS
FIRST PERSON – MASCULINE OR FEMININE
Singular Plural
Nominative I We
Possessive my / mine our / ours
Accusative me Us
SECOND PERSON – MASCULINE OR FEMININE
Singular Plural
Nominative You You
Possessive Your / Yours Your / Yours
Accusative You You
In second person, Nominative, Possessive and Accusative cases have the same Singular and Plural. This is because Second Person is always used when the person /s are right in front of us. The communication can be clearly understood as they are before us.
THIRD PERSON
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural for all genders
Nominative He She It They
Possessive His Her / Hers Its Their / Theirs
Accusative Him Her It Them
NOTE: In the First Person, we use the same singular and plural for both Mas gender; for the Second Person who is in front we also know their gender. The same logic is applied to ‘Second Person’.
But, in Third Person, who may not be present, we have to differentiate between male and female.
Note that Possessive cases of Personal Pronouns (mostly) have two forms. Of these, two, my, our, your, her, their are used with Nouns as in ………
This is my shirt
This is our house
That is your car
This is her eyeliner
It is their office
These are called Possessive Adjectives. These are also called Pro-nominal Adjectives as they are formed from Pro-Nouns.
Third Person Masculine Possessive (his) and Feminine Possessive (her) are used both in Adjective and Pronouns.
This is his Computer (Possessive Adjective).
This Computer is his. (Possessive Pronoun).
This is her make-up kit (Possessive Adjective). This make-up kit is hers. (Possessive Pronoun).
We cannot use these for third Person Neuter Gender.
It is its Nest
The Nest is its.
See, how ridiculous it sounds?
When to use IT
– For things without life.
Here is you key, take it.
– For animals
The dog keeps on barking but it won’t bite.
– For a child when we do not want to refer to sex (male / female).
I saw the new born baby. It was crying.
– For some statement or action taken place before.
Harbhajan Singh slapped SreeSai. He knew he would be punished for it.
– To give emphasis to the Noun or Pronoun that follows.
It was you who started the quarrel.
We find many use to convey the same meaning. It was you only ……. quarrel.
This is not English.
– Use as a temporary subject before the verb ‘To be’.
The real subject follows.
It is easy to speak (To speak is easy).
– Use as an indefinite Nominative of an Impersonal verb (We shall deal extremely what Impersonal verb under ‘VERBS’.
It rains
The ‘IT’ used here is also called Impersonal Pronoun. The ‘Verb’ rains is called Impersonal Verb.
– Personal Pronoun should be of the same gender Neuter and person on the Noun.
Ronaldo is a great football player. He has joined “Real Madrid’.
Here, Ronaldo is masculine and in third person. So, we should use adjective HE and not SHE or IT. Since Ronaldo is singular, we use only singular.
The IPL Twenty 20 Players are committed and so they are paid huge sums. We have used players Plural. Here, Plural ‘THEY’ are used.
– When a Pronoun stands in for a collective Noun, it must be in singular and Neuter Gender.
The Pakistani army suffered its worst defeat in Bangladesh war.
– If the collective Noun refers / indicates to separate individual of the group, the Pronoun should be in Plural.
The Supreme Court Judges were divided in their opinion.
– When two or m ore Singular Nouns are joined by ‘And’, the Pronoun must be in Plural.
DHRYODHANA AND his brothers Nero evil personified. They paid for it.
– When two Singular Nouns are joined by ‘and’ and refer to the same person, the Pronoun should be in Singular.
The Secretary and Treasurer are negligent of their duty.
– When two Singular Nouns jointly and are precede by EACH / Every Pronoun in Singular.
EACH and every grain one eats, has his name written on it.
When two or more singular Nouns are jointly or either …… or Neither ……. nor use Singular.
Lord Rama or Krishna should shower their grace on us.
Neither Ravana’s army or his personal valour helped him save his life.
– When a Plural Noun and a Singular Noun are joined by ‘or’ or ‘nor’, Pronoun is Plural.
Rahul David and his Players failed in their matches.
– When you use a Pronoun to refer to more than one Person (Noun) or Pronoun of different persons, you must use First Person Plural and not the third.
You and I have done our part.
– When we speak or write, we must use first person later and give preference to second and third person. That is we should use II / III Persons first.
You and I and not I and You
He and I and not I and He
You and He and not He and You
Personal Pronouns – I, He, She, We, They have different forms of Reaccurative cases viz ; me, him, her, u, them.
Correct Usage Incorrect Usage
These books are These Books are
Meant for me Meant for I
Always use accusative case after ‘but’.
Nobody shall come to your rescue but me.
http://ramanisblog.in/2012/09/10/articlesknow-your-grammar/
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