Confusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns How do you decide which form of a pronoun to use, as in the choices of the wording in “John is as fast as him” and “John is as fast as he”? Knowing the varieties of pronouns will help you choose the correct form. A subject pronoun is one used as the subject of a sentence, as in “He is right” or “I am amazed.” (Subject pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, we, and they.) Subject pronouns may also rename the subject, following a copular verb (one that is a form of “to be”): “It is I who left the chair there.” A subject pronoun should also be used for such sentences as “It might have been she,” though an object pronoun is used in its place almost invariably in casual speech and often in writing. Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, and them), by contrast, are used to identify the object of a sentence, as in “Mary gave it to her” and “The tourists went to see them.” (Notice that you and it can serve as both subject and object pronouns.) Object nouns are used with all the three types of objects: “The Smiths invited us” (direct object), “The Smiths gave us our dish back” (indirect object), and “The Smiths gave a party for us” (object of a preposition). Should a sentence read, “I am older than her” or “I am older than she”? In a statement of comparison that uses as or than and does not end with a copular verb, temporarily add one to test the correct type of pronoun: “I am older than her is” does not sound right, but “I am older than she is” does, so the correct word in this sentence is she. (Therefore, the correct sentence in the pair of examples in the first paragraph of this post — in formal writing, at least — is “John is as fast as he.”) Note, however, that what appears to be a sentence with an incorrect form of a pronoun can be correct when it means something else. For example, “She fell asleep before him” could mean that the woman fell asleep in front of someone, not earlier than someone, in which case the statement is correct. What if the sentence refers to more than one person? “Joe and I were invited to the party” is correct, because I is part of the subject (“Joe and I”). But “The last people at the party were Joe and I” is wrong because here, despite its location at the end of the sentence, “Joe and I” is the subject. Just as you’d write, “The last person at the party was me,” you’d refer to the last two partygoers by writing, “The last people at the party were Joe and me.” (When I checked this post for spelling and grammar, Microsoft Word’s checking system recommended that I replace me in “The last person at the party was me” with I. Sigh.) Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs) signal possession or relationship and, unlike nouns in possessive form, never include apostrophes. They take the same form whether in the subjective position or the objective position: “That is hers. Yours is here.” Reflexive pronouns (myself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves, yourself, and yourselves) refer to something already mentioned (“The machine appeared to start by itself”) or implied (Suit yourselves”). “The directions applied only to myself” is wrong because the person indicated by myself is not explicitly or implicitly referred to. (The correct wording is “The directions applied only to me.”) However, “I followed the directions myself” is correct because myself refers to the subject I. What if the pronoun is part of a dependent clause (one that must be part of a sentence because it cannot stand on its own)? As a test, temporarily omit the conditional word (although, because, since, if, or when): In the case of “Because you asked her so nicely, you may go with them,” ignore because. “You asked her so nicely” correctly uses her rather than she in the object, so her is also correct in the full sentence. Abbas Asadi English Teacher
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:52:54 +0000
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