Pronouns

Pronouns are words which replace a noun: I, me, she, we, they, who, that, yours, his, her,etc. We use pronouns so we don’t have to repeat the noun.

Pronoun Case

Pronouns have different cases; the subjective, or nominative, cases are: I, you (singular), he/she/it, we, you (plural),they and who. The objective, or dative, cases are: me, you (singular), him/her, us, you (plural), them and whom. We use the objective case when something is being done to (or given to, etc.) someone.

Incorrect: No matter how loudly I yell, Mom still doesn’t listen to I.

The first “I” is the subjective, and is correct; the second “I” is objective, and should be changed to “me”: …Mom still doesn’t listen to me.

Incorrect: The baby is hungry; please feed he.

The pronoun, “he”, should be in the objective case: …please feed him.

Incorrect: The three artists do not know with who they will work next.

“Who” should be in the objective case, “whom”: …with whom they will work next.

N.B.The use of “whom” is falling out of fashion, and should only be used in very formal writing. When in doubt, it is better to use “who” than to incorrectly use “whom”.

“Whom” Instead of “Who”

“Who” Instead of “Whom"

“Who” is a subjective pronoun; it should be used to refer to the subject of a sentence. “Whom” is an objective pronoun; it should be used to refer to the object of a sentence. If you’re stuck, you can try this formula:

· if the pronoun can be replaced by “he” or “she”, then use “who”.

· if the pronoun can be replaced by “him” or “her”, then use “whom”.

N.B. The use of “whom” is falling out of fashion, and should only be used in very formal writing. When in doubt, it is better to use “who” than to incorrectly use “whom”.

Incorrect: The leader of the country should be an individual who the people can trust.

The subject of this sentence is “the leader of the country”. Because “who” is a subjective case, it should be changed to “whom”; the pronoun refers to the individual that people can trust. We can see this clearly if we try to replace “who” with a third person pronoun: “people can trust him” sounds better than “people can trust he”.

Incorrect: The three artists do not know with who they will work next.

The subject of this sentence is “the three artists”; the object is the unknown person they will work with next. The pronoun “who” should be changed to “whom” because it refers to the object of the sentence. We can prove this by changing the wording of the sentence a little: “The three artists will work with him next.”

Whomever vs. Whoever

“Whoever” is a subjective pronoun; it should be used to refer to the subject of a sentence. “Whomever” is an objective pronoun; it should be used to refer to the object of a sentence. If you’re stuck, you can try this formula:

· if the pronoun can be replaced by “he” or “she”, then use “whoever”.

· if the pronoun can be replaced by “him” or “her”, then use “whomever”.

Incorrect: There is one more textbook for whomever doesn’t have one.

The pronoun in this sentence should be changed to “whoever” because the subjective is required. We can see this easily if we change the wording of the sentence: “There is one more textbook for he who doesn’t have one” or “he doesn’t have one”. The pronoun “he” is subjective.

Incorrect: Whomever gossips may soon find the tables turned.

“Whomever” should be replaced with “whoever”. We can see this if we re-arrange the sentence a little: “He gossips…”

Incorrect: Whomever made this mess should clean it up.

The pronoun should use the subjective “whoever” because it refers to the subject of the sentence.

Correct: You can give this piece of cake to whomever.

We can tell “whomever” is correctly used because it can be replaced by “him”: “You can give this piece of cake to him.”

“There” instead of “It”

“There” is often used as an adverb, talking about a place (e.g. “We had a good time on vacation there.”). It can also be used as a pronoun, where the verb is in front of the subject but the subject has no obvious noun (e.g. “There is no way to do this.”). However, if the pronoun refers to an obvious noun, “it” should be used.

Incorrect: We went to Venice. There is lovely.

As the pronoun is referring specifically to a noun (“Venice”), “there” should be changed to “it”. We could also write “It is lovely there”, using “there” as an adverb.

Incorrect: There says “no smoking”.

Perhaps this sentence is referring to a sign; we could change the sentence to “The sign says ‘no smoking’”. Because a pronoun would refer to “the sign”, we should use “it”: It says “no smoking”.

Correct: There is a coffee shop on the corner.

“There” is correctly used in this sentence because no clear noun is indicated.

Vague Pronoun Reference

If you have several nounsin your sentence, it can be confusing if each noun is replaced by a pronoun. When using pronouns, be sure it is clear as to which noun the pronoun is referring. It is best to use only one pronoun per sentence.

Incorrect: Where do they want to meet them?

There are too many 3rd person plural pronouns for the reader to interpret. This sentence might be better written: Where do the boys want to meet their friends?

Incorrect: She just saw her with it.

There are too many pronouns for the reader to understand. This sentence might be better written: Mary just saw her with the book.

Duplicate Pronoun

Intensive pronouns are created when a personal pronoun (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they) is used with a reflexive pronoun (a pronoun ending in “-self”). Intensive pronouns are used to add emphasis. If emphasis is not required, the term is redundant.

Incorrect: Mary, herself, likes the pink shirt; Cathy, herself, likes the black shirt.

In this sentence, the emphasis created by the intensive pronouns is unnecessary, and may sound strange to the reader. In both clauses, “herself” can be removed.

Incorrect: I wrote a book. I, myself, am happy with it.

The intensive pronoun is unnecessary. “Myself” should be removed.

Correct: I wrote a book, but my editor is not happy with it; myself, I am happy with it.

The emphasis may be required in this sentence to demonstrate the difference between the editor’s opinion and the writer’s opinion.

Pronoun-Noun Agreement

A pronoun replaces a noun, therefore the pronoun must be singular if the noun it replaces is singular, and the pronoun must be plural if the noun it replaces is plural.

Incorrect: A group of protesters staged a sit-in to show their disapproval for the by-law.

“A group” is singular, and “their” is plural; the pronoun should be changed to “its”.

Incorrect: The girls spent hours dressing and doing her hair and make-up before the play.

“The girls” is plural, and “her” is singular; the pronoun should be changed to “their”. The sentence should be written: "The girls spent hours dressing and doing their hair and make-up before the play."

Exception:

English sometimes makes it difficult for a sentence to be politically correct, as we have no polite gender-neutral pronoun for people (it is impolite to refer to a person as “it”, and selecting one gender may not be appropriate). In this case, one may replace a singular noun with either he or she, or a plural pronoun.

Correct: When someone throws litter on the ground, he or shemay be charged with a misdemeanour.

Correct: When someone throws litter on the ground, they may be charged with a misdemeanour.

Article Misuse With Pronouns

A pronoun is used to modify a noun; an article is also used to modify a noun. If both are used to modify the same noun, the reader will become confused. Pronouns are words like he, I, we, our, it, her and their.

Incorrect: Why are you reading the my book?

The noun "book" does not need to be modified by both the pronoun "my" and the article "the"; one or the other should be removed.

Incorrect: Getting on the train, she gave her ticket to a him.

Because “him” does not modify a noun, “him” should be replaced with a noun: Getting on the train, she gave her ticket to a ticket man. With this wording, the article, “a”, has a noun to modify.

Singular Indefinite Pronoun Usage

Indefinite pronouns are words like a few, some, each, everything, none, and either. Indefinite pronouns are always singular. The pronouns or verbs which refer to the indefinite pronoun should also be in the singular.

Incorrect: Something on my computer are making it slow.

The verb, “are”, must agree with the indefinite pronoun, “something”. The verb should be changed to “is”.

Incorrect: Each of the scientific inventions was presented by their inventor.

The possessive pronoun, “their”, does not agree with the indefinite pronoun, “each”. The possessive pronoun should be changed to “its”.

Pronoun/Noun Agreement, Particularly When Using “This”.

The pronoun, “this”, is a singular pronoun, and should modify only singular nouns. For plural nouns, use the pronoun, “these”.

Incorrect: My daughter wants to buy this shoes.

Even if the shoes are of the same type, “shoes” is a plural noun. The sentence should be written, “My daughter wants to buy these shoes.”

Correct: My daughter wants to buy this pair of shoes.

The noun, “pair”, is singular, so “this” is the correct pronoun.

Correct: I’m glad there are so many bottles of this delicious wine.

“This” is generally used with uncountable nouns, even if it is in great quantity.

Pronoun-Noun Agreement: These/Those

The demonstrative pronouns, “these” and “those”, are plural pronouns, and should refer to plural nouns. Mistakes frequently occur in situations where many things are put into one group, such as “a pair of shoes”, or “a bag of marbles”. In such cases, the pronoun should agree with the “pair”, or the “bag”. Mistakes can also occur when an accent or dialect makes “this” and “these” sound similar; while this can be charming to hear, it is considered incorrect in formal writing.

Incorrect: Please move these box of books to the other table.

The pronoun should refer to the box, not the books; “this” or “that” should be used instead of “these”.

Incorrect: What is all these noise?

Even though there may be several sources of noise, the verb, “is” tells the reader that the sentence should be in the singular. The sentence should be written: What is all this noise?

Correct: The French teacher stormed into the room and demanded, “Vat is all these noise?!”

Misuse of Objective Pronouns

The subjective pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we and they. The objective pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, our and them. Subjective pronouns are used to replace the name of a person, and do the action the verb suggests. Objective pronouns receive the action the verb suggests.

Incorrect: Should you and me go pick up the pizza now?

This is an extremely common error. The easiest way to check it is to remove the second person, “you”. If the sentence read, “Should me go pick up the pizza now?”, the error would be obvious: the objective “me” should be changed to the subjective “I”.

Correct: Should you and I go pick up the pizza now?

Incorrect: This is my brother; I am older than him.

This is a tricky sentence because of the missing verb. Everyday speech has removed the final verb “is”; if it is properly written the sentence should read: This is my brother; I am older than he is. When written this way, it is obvious the pronoun for the brother should be “he”.

Misuse of Subjective Pronouns

Incorrect: When you are finished reading the book, you can give it to my roommate or I.

This is an extremely common error. The easiest way to check it is to remove the second person, “my roommate”. If the second clause read, “...you can give it to I”, the error would be quite obvious: the subjective “I” should be changed to the objective “me”.

Correct: When you are finished reading the book, you can give it to my roommate or me.

Incorrect: Julia does not want to go on a date with he.

This sentence requires an objective pronoun; “he” should be changed to “him”.

Misuse of Objective Pronoun in Compound Subject

A compound subject has two or more nouns. Look for the word “and” or “or”.

Incorrect: Either my sister or me will take care of our parents when they get old.

The compound subject, “my sister or me” requires a subjective pronoun; the objective pronoun “me” should be changed to “I”.

Incorrect: Him and Linus borrowed a little money so they could go skiing.

The objective pronoun “him” refers to the other person who is going skiing with Linus; these two people make up the compound subject. The pronoun should be changed to the subjective, “he”.

Incorrect: Them and Linus borrowed a little money so they could go skiing.

In this sentence, “them” should be changed to the subjective pronoun “they”. However, the flow of the compound subject is not very good, so the sentence might be re-written as: They, along with Linus, borrowed a little money so they could go skiing.