Pronouns take the place of nouns.

Pronoun Tips

Pronouns take the place of nouns.

Subject Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Object Pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them

Rule: Use a Subject Pronoun (also called Nominative Case), not only as the subject of a sentence, but after to be verbs when the pronoun renames the subject.

To be verbs: is, are, was, were, will be, may be, may have been

Example: He is my friend.
He is the subject of the sentence, so use a subject pronoun.

Example: Enrique and she are friends.
Enrique and she are the subjects of the sentence.

Example: It is I who called.
I comes after the to be verb is and renames the subject it. Therefore, use the subject pronoun.

Rule: Use an Object Pronoun (also called Objective Case) when the pronoun is the direct object, the indirect object, or the object of the preposition.

Example: Ella met him at the restaurant.
Him is the direct object.

Example: Ella will give him his money back.
Him is an indirect object because you can mentally put the word to in front of it. Money is the direct object.

Example: Between you and me, this will never work.
You and me are the objects of the preposition between.

Rule: Use reflexive pronouns–myself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves, yourself, yourselves–to refer back to another noun or pronoun in the sentence.

Correct Example: I did it myself.

Incorrect Example: Please give it to Butri or myself.
In this sentence, myself does not refer back to another noun or pronoun.

Posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 1:05 am

---

I vs. Me

You don’t need to learn how to diagram a sentence to be able to learn the rules of grammar and punctuation. Let me help you use pronouns correctly without any unnecessary jargon.

First, let’s define a pronoun: a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. We can divide pronouns into three categories:

Subject Pronouns
I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Object Pronouns
me, you, him, her, it, us, them

Possessive Pronouns
mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

The following rule not only makes sense but is simple.

Rule: Use one of the Subject Pronouns when it is the subject of the sentence.

Example: I hit the ball.
Who hit the ball? I did. So “I” is the subject.

Usually, these subject pronouns sound right to most of us.

Example: He and I will meet at the gym.
Who will meet at the gym? He will meet at the gym. I will meet at the gym. So “he” and “I” are both the subjects.

Sometimes we want to say, “Him and me will . . .” or “Him and I will . . . .” You can remember the correct pronouns by saying each pronoun alone in the sentence. It probably won’t sound right to you to say, “Him will . . .” or “Me will . . . .”

Now, this next rule is difficult because it doesn’t sound right to most of us.

Rule: Use a Subject Pronoun following state of being verbs such as am, are, is, was, were.

Example: It is she.
Example: It was we who won the election.

Because we don’t speak this way, we can’t use our ear to help us with this rule. This is a good time to discuss the difference between spoken language and written language, particularly when it comes to tests and formal papers. We speak informally but must write more formally. Frankly, if I knock on someone’s door and am asked, “Who is it?” I am not going to say, “It is I” for fear that the person on the other side of the door will think I’m weird and never open up. However, if I am taking an exam or writing a report, I will try to spot these state of being verbs and check my pronoun usage.

The next rule does sound right to most of us.

Rule: Use one of the Object Pronouns when the pronoun is not a subject and it doesn’t follow astate of being verb.

Example: Nancy gave the gift to her.
Example: Please give it to him or me.

(Remember, leave out one of the pronouns and you will be able to hear the correct answer.) Most of us have been brainwashed to believe that “I” is always correct. Not so. “I” and “me” follow the same rules as all other pronouns. Would you say, “Please give it to I”? Of course not.

Example: Between you and me, I think Sandy cheated.

Again, me is not the subject nor does it follow one of those state of being verbs. So we must use the Object Case. (For those of you with some grammar background, me is one of the objects of the preposition.)

Once you feel confident about pronoun usage, you will find the rest of grammar to be fairly easy, I promise.

Posted on Saturday, April 1st, 2006 at 10:09 pm

fuente : http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/category/pronouns/