Do you know what personal pronouns are? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on personal pronouns, including the definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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According to Your Dictionary, personal pronouns take the place of specific nouns naming people, places, ideas and things. These include I, he, him, her, it, me, she, them, they, us, we, and you in English grammar. The first personal singular pronouns include I and me. The first person plural pronouns include we and us. The second person singular pronouns include you. The second person plural pronouns include you. The third person singular pronouns include she, her, he, him, it, they, and them. The third person plural pronouns include they and them. Some of these pronouns are gender neutral, while others are designated for male and female. These subject and object pronouns are used frequently in modern English, and are often avoided excessively in formal situations. This is one of many basic grammatical concepts that are important for successful students to know – you will see them everywhere, in simple sentences and more.
Spanish also has Spanish personal pronouns that are useful to know if you are traveling to a place like Spain. These include yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, nosotras, vosotros, vosotras, ustedes ellos, and ellas. “Alfred” might be replaced by “él” and “the lovers” by “ellas.” The vosotros form is usually only used in Spain. You will notice that these also have masculine and feminine forms which are used for masculine and feminine nouns, as well as singular and plural forms.
According to CSUN, there are actually far more forms of pronouns, which include the below nominatives, accusatives, the subjective case, genitive pronouns, neuter forms, and more. These include different Old English paradigms and an instrumental case you might find in a grammar book. These were used in the ninth century and more as possible grammatical forms of a word in actual Old English sentences.
hwæs = of who
hwæs = of what (whose)
me or mec = me (direct object)
ge = you (plural = “y’all” or “younz”)
us = with us (or indirect object)
incer = of your two (yours)
he = he
his = his
inc = with you two (or indirect object)
heo or hie = she
þin = your (singular)
wit = we two
hwone = whom (direct object)
me = with me (or indirect object)
eow or eowic = you (direct object)
þe = with you (or indirect object)
hwæt = what (direct object)
min = mine
user or ure = of us (our)
inc or incit = you two (direct object)
hit = it (direct object)
heo or hie = her (direct object)
hi or hie = them (direct object)
git = you two
us or usic = us (direct object)
his = its
hira = theirs
him = with him ( or indirect object)
hit = it
him or heom = with them (or indirect object)
hine = him (direct object)
hire = with her (indirect object)
hwa = who
hwi or hwon = by mean of what
þu = you (singular)
eow = with you (or indirect object)
unc = with us two (or indirect object)
him = with it (or indirect object)
hire = hers
uncer = of us two (of ours)
uncor uncit = us two (direct object)
þe or þec = you (direct object)
we = we
hi or hie = they
ic = I
hwæt = what
hwæm or hwam = with whom (indirect object)
hwæm or hwam = with whom (indirect object)
eower = your (plural = “y’all’s” or “younz’s”)
hwi or hwon = by means of whom
Many different languages also contain words that mean personal pronouns. You may notice that some of these translations of personal pronouns look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of personal pronouns is provided by Word Sense.
Spanish: pronombre personal (masc.)
Nogai: оьзлик авыс
Italian: pronome personale (masc.)
Interlingua: pronomine personal
Hungarian: személyes névmás
Turkish: kişi zamiri
Danish: personligt pronomen (neut.)
Romanian: pronume personal (neut.)
Tagalog: panghalip panao
Novial: personal pronomine
Polish: zaimek osobowy (m-in)
Norwegian: personligt pronomen (neut.)
Lithuanian: asmeninis įvardis (masc.)
Dutch: persoonlijk voornaamwoord (neut.)
Belarusian: асабовы займеннік
German: Personalpronomen (neut.)
Mandarin: 人稱代詞, 人称代词 (rénchēng dàicí)
Estonian: isikuline asesõna
Japanese: 人称代名詞 (にんしょうだいめいし, ninshō-daimeishi)
Icelandic: persónufornafn (neut.)
Macedonian: лична заменка
Finnish: persoonapronomini
Russian: ли́чное местоиме́ние (neut.)
Czech: osobní zájmeno (neut.)
Albanian: përemër vetor (masc.)
Indonesian: kata ganti orang
Swedish: personligt pronomen (neut.)
Thai: บุรุษสรรพนาม
Esperanto: persona pronomo
Slovene: osebni zaimek (masc.)
Korean: 인칭대명사 (inching-daemyeongsa)
Portuguese: pronome pessoal (masc.)
Ukrainian: особистий займенник
Armenian: անձնական դերանուն
French: pronom personnel (masc.)
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
Kevin Miller is a growth marketer with an extensive background in Search Engine Optimization, paid acquisition and email marketing. He is also an online editor and writer based out of Los Angeles, CA. He studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google and became infatuated with English Grammar and for years has been diving into the language, demystifying the do's and don'ts for all who share the same passion! He can be found online here.
Kevin
December 26, 2021
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