Personal pronoun facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Personal pronouns are special pronouns that help us talk about who is doing or receiving an action. They are linked to a specific "person":

First person (like I or we) refers to the speaker.
Second person (like you) refers to the person being spoken to.
Third person (like he, she, it, they) refers to someone or something else.

These pronouns can change their form based on things like if they are singular or plural, if they are masculine or feminine, or how they are used in a sentence (their case). Even though they are called "personal," they can refer to people, animals, or even objects!

Sometimes, in some languages, a pronoun usually used for a group (like "you all") is used to show respect when talking to one person. This is called the T–V distinction. For example, in French, vous is used instead of tu to be polite.

For more about personal pronouns in English, check out English personal pronouns.

Understanding Pronouns
How Pronouns Work in Sentences
Capitalization
Examples of Personal Pronouns
See also

Understanding Pronouns

Pronouns vs. Pro-forms

A pronoun is a type of word. A pro-form is a word or phrase that stands in for another word, phrase, or sentence. It helps us avoid repeating information. Most pronouns are pro-forms, but not all.

Here are some examples:

It's a good idea. (Here, it is a pronoun and a pro-form, standing for the "good idea.")
It's raining. (Here, it is a pronoun, but it doesn't stand for anything specific. We don't say "the sky is raining.")
I asked her to help, and she did so right away. (Did so is a pro-form, standing for "help," but it's not a pronoun.)

Person and Number

Frequency of personal pronouns in Serbo-Croatian

Languages usually have personal pronouns for each of the three grammatical persons:

First-person pronouns refer to the speaker.
- I (singular) means just you.
- We (plural) means you and others.
Second-person pronouns refer to the person or people you are talking to.
- You (singular or plural in English) means the person or people you are addressing.
Third-person pronouns refer to people or things that are not the speaker or the listener.
- He, she, it (singular) mean one other person or thing.
- They (plural) means more than one other person or thing.

Many languages also have different forms for singular (one) and plural (more than one). Some languages even have special pronouns for two people (called "dual") or three people (called "trial").

Some languages have special "we" pronouns:

Inclusive we means "you and I" (including the listener).
Exclusive we means "they and I" (not including the listener).

For example, in Tok Pisin, mitripela means "they two and I," and yumitripela means "you two and I."

Interestingly, some languages don't use third-person personal pronouns at all. Instead, they might use words that point to things (like "this" or "that") or just full names or descriptions.

Sometimes, personal pronouns can be used to talk about people in general, not just specific ones. In English, you might say "You should hold your oar with both hands" instead of "One should hold one's oar with both hands."

Gender in Pronouns

Personal pronouns, especially third-person ones, often change based on the gender of the person or thing they refer to.

In English, for example:

He is used for a man.
She is used for a woman.
It is used for an object or an animal (when we don't know its sex).
They can be used for a person whose gender is unknown, or for someone who doesn't identify as a man or a woman.

Some languages have grammatical gender, where nouns are either masculine or feminine (or neuter). In French, il (he) and elle (she) are used based on the grammatical gender of the word they replace, not always the natural gender. For example, a table (la table) is feminine, so you would use elle to refer to it.

It can be tricky when you don't know someone's gender. In English, using it for a person is usually rude. While people used to use he for everyone, now we try to use gender-neutral language. Common solutions include saying "he or she" or, more often, using singular they.

When talking about a group with both men and women, languages have different rules. In French, for example, the masculine plural ils is used for a mixed group.

Many languages, however, do not have different pronouns for male and female in the third person. These include:

Some of these languages have started to add gender distinctions due to influence from European languages. For instance, Mandarin introduced a different written character for she (她), but it sounds the same as he (他).

Formality in Pronouns

Many languages use different pronouns to show how formal or familiar you are with someone. This is especially true for second-person pronouns (you).

For example:

In French, you use tu for friends and family, but vous (which is also the plural "you") for people you don't know well or want to show respect to.
In German, the third-person plural sie (capitalized as Sie) is used as a polite "you" for both singular and plural.
In Polish, polite words like pan (gentleman) are used instead of a direct "you."

Some languages, like Japanese and Korean, have very complex systems where the pronoun you choose depends on the speaker's and listener's social rank, job, age, and gender. Often, people avoid using pronouns at all and instead use names, titles, or just imply who they are talking about.

Grammatical Case

Pronouns often change their form based on their job in a sentence, which is called their case.

In English, we have:

Nominative forms (I, he, she, we, they) are usually the subject of a verb (the one doing the action).
Oblique forms (me, him, her, us, them) are usually the object of a verb or a preposition (the one receiving the action).

For example:

She saw him. (She is nominative, him is oblique.)
He gave the book to her. (He is nominative, her is oblique after the preposition to.)

Languages like German have even more case forms for pronouns, such as dative and accusative. Pronouns often keep more case differences than nouns do in a language.

Reflexive and Possessive Forms

Languages also have reflexive pronouns, which refer back to the subject of the sentence. In English, these are words like myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, and themselves.

I did it myself. (Here, myself refers back to I.)

Personal pronouns are also linked to possessive forms, which show ownership. English has two types:

Possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives): my, your, his, her, its, our, their. These come before a noun.
- That is my book.
Possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its (rare), ours, theirs. These stand alone.
- That book is mine.

Some languages, like Slovene, have special reflexive possessives that mean "my own" or "his own." This helps avoid confusion.

Eva je dala Maji svojo knjigo (Eva gave Maja her own book.)
Eva je dala Maji njeno knjigo (Eva gave Maja her book, meaning Maja's book.)

How Pronouns Work in Sentences

Antecedents

Often, third-person personal pronouns have an antecedent. This is a noun or phrase that the pronoun refers back to. Using pronouns helps us avoid repeating the same words over and over.

John hid and we couldn't find him. (John is the antecedent of him.)
After he lost his job, my father set up a small grocer's shop. (My father is the antecedent of he, even though it comes after.)
I loved those bright orange socks. Can you lend them to me? (Those bright orange socks is the antecedent of them.)

Sometimes, it's not clear what the antecedent is, which can make a sentence confusing.

Alan was going to discuss it with Bob. He's always dependable. (Who is he? Alan or Bob?)

Dropping Pronouns

In some languages, you can leave out subject or object pronouns in certain situations. These are called pro-drop languages. The verb's form often tells you who the subject is. In these languages, pronouns are usually only used if they are needed to make something clear or if they are emphasized.

Dummy Pronouns

Sometimes, pronouns are used just because the rules of grammar require them, even if they don't refer to anything specific. These are called dummy pronouns.

It is raining.
It is nice to relax.

In these sentences, it doesn't point to a specific thing, but it's needed for the sentence to be grammatically correct.

Capitalization

Personal pronouns are usually not capitalized. However, there are a few special cases:

In English, the first-person subject pronoun I is always capitalized.
In some religious texts, pronouns referring to Jesus or God are capitalized (like He or Thou).

In many European languages, but not English, second-person pronouns are often capitalized in letters to show politeness to the person you are writing to.

Examples of Personal Pronouns

Here are some sentences showing personal pronouns in action:

He shook her* hand.
Why do you always rely on me to do your* homework for you?
They tried to run away from the hunter, but he set his* dogs after them.

Words like her, your, and his are sometimes called possessive pronouns, but they are also known as possessive determiners or possessive adjectives.