Pronouns Who/Whom I He Us We Ourselves

What are pronouns? Pronouns take the place of nouns. The word or phrase replaced by a pronoun is called an antecedent. ENGL316

Antecedent Rules A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or another pronoun. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent (the noun or other pronoun in the sentence that it refers to) in person, number, and gender. ENGL316

Example: Halloween is one of America's holidays. It is celebrated in October. Halloween is a noun. It is a pronoun that refers to the antecedent, Halloween. ENGL316

Term: Antecedent The rule is that a pronoun refers to the closest preceding logical noun. John loved only himself. The little dog caught the frisbee all by herself. She caught it! Danni and Sam stepped off the curb. The car almost hit them. ENGL316

Example: When Robert was fixing the car, he cut his hand. (Robert is a noun. He is a pronoun that refers to the antecedent, Robert.) ENGL316

Pronouns = People, places, or things ME! Include: I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, mine, theirs, we, us, our, ours, ourselves, myself, whose, whom, etc. ME! ENGL316

Examples: The ghosts who hang out with Casper are cute. Their main objective is to scare the superstitious. Few are really scared of them. They sometimes scared themselves though. ENGL316

Objects: who/whom The ghosts who hang out with Casper are cute. Why not whom? The word who just restates the subject of the sentence, which is ghosts. Objects: The ghosts, of whom there are few, are cute. Who is cutest? Whom do you like best, Casper or the other ghosts? Casper! Who?! Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters! (Why? It’s informal speech, not professional speech or writing.) ENGL316

Subject/object/reflexives Subject acts: They scared Jim. Possessive subject: Ghost’s objective= Their main objective is to scare the superstitious. Objects are acted upon: Few are really scared of them. Reflexives snap back: They sometimes scared themselves though. ENGL316

Now you try. Can you see why the red ones are incorrect? Jeff rides his new bike. Him rides it down the block. Rickie gets on the plane. They are very excited about his trip. Jack and myself fell down the hill. ENGL316

Why? Him rides it down the block. Here, the pronoun is an object or person done to, not the actor (subject). The pronoun he is needed instead. They are very excited about his trip. Who the heck are they? A noun antecedent needs to come first. ENGL316

Why reflexives? Jack and myself fell down the hill. There is no noun antecedent. Jill explained: Jack and I fell down the hill. That’s how I hurt myself. This kind of pronoun is called a reflexive: myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves, yourself, yourselves. It must be preceded by a referent. I hurt myself. He hit himself. Never in professional communication: Jack and myself played golf. ENGL316

Pronouns must agree with their nouns in terms of number. Easy: Jack and Jill fell down. They (or we if one of them is speaking) fell down. There are two of them, so the pronoun must be plural. Trickier: Is it his or her or their? No one on this bus seems to know ______ way around this part of New York City. Careful writers would use his or her because No one is singular. It would be considered permissible, however, to use their in everyday speech. ENGL316

Compounds: How would you handle this? My grandmother really loved Juan. She left all her money to Federico and _______ . (he/him) Him. When you compound a pronoun with something else (even Federico!), don't change its form. When in doubt, just eliminate poor Federico for the moment and you’ll usually get it right: She left all her money to him. ENGL316

Gender and pronouns A student in that all-women's college should have no fears about ________ future. (her/their) The singular "student" requires a singular pronoun, "her" (we’ve established it’s not a guy). In everyday speech, people are sometimes using ‘they’ as a singular to avoid gender bias. Don’t ever use it in formal professional writing. Another way out: go plural, students … they. ENGL316

Who vs. whom He was so worried about ________ he should ask to the big event, that he ended up not asking anyone. (who/whom) Whom. Try turning it around. Who goes with she, he, they, while whom goes with her, him, them. Should he ask Jack or Jill? Ask him or her? He should ask her. Ask whom? Whom should he ask? ENGL316

Subject/Object: complex situations Neither Tashonda nor _____ am responsible for this mess. (I/me) You need the subject form of the first-person pronoun here: I. As with the last slide, use the substitution and paring away strategy. Bonnie is responsible. I am responsible. Toshoda and I am resonsible. ENGL316

Another compound. This is a matter for you and _______ to decide. (I/me) When we compound a pronoun with something else, we don't change its form! Here you need the object form, the object of the preposition for: me. ENGL316

Writing vs. Speech Everybody in this class has completed ________ homework already. Is it his or her or their? Everybody is singular (even though it seems to be talking about more than one person). Usage on this is changing: it is now acceptable to say their in this sentence in speech. Careful writers would continue to use his or her. ENGL316