Personal pronouns
The following are the different forms for personal pronouns in English:
Use of the subject pronoun
Subject pronouns reflect the nouns they replace. Since English nouns rarely show gender, the pronouns "he" and "she" are generally used only for people or animals; in the case of objects or impersonal expressions, the pronoun "it" will be used.
Examples:
- She wants to eat.
- You look tired.
- It is hard to cook well.
Use of predicate pronouns
Predicate pronouns will always have the same form whether they are used as direct, indirect, or prepositional objects. The forms are: "me", "you", "it", "him", "her", " us", "them".
Whatever the form of the sentence (affirmative, negative, interrogative), direct objects — or the pronouns replacing them — will follow the verb:
- Did you buy it?
- You didn't buy it.
- You bought it.
Prepositional objects will come after their preposition:
- Will you come to the store with me?
- He left without her.
Indirect objects will generally come after the proposition "to," except if the pronoun precedes the direct object, in which case the proposition "to" disappears:
- I have spoken to her.
- I gave this present to them.
- But: I gave them this present.
Order of pronouns
When a verb is followed by two or more pronouns, the following sequence is observed:
Examples:
- Don't tell that to him.
- He couldn't sell the car to them.
Exception: As noted above, one may omit the preposition "to" in front of an indirect object, in which case the indirect object pronoun precedes the direct object:
- He gave me it for Christmas.
- Don't tell him that.
- He couldn't sell them the car.