Personal pronouns are words that substitute for nouns to avoid repetition, referring to people, animals, or things without naming them explicitly. They are categorized by person, number, and case. The three grammatical persons are first person (the speaker or writer, e.g., I, we), second person (the person being addressed, e.g., you), and third person (the person or thing being spoken about, e.g., he, she, it, they).

Personal pronouns can be singular (referring to one person or thing) or plural (referring to more than one). They are divided into subject pronouns (used as the subject of a verb) and object pronouns (used as the object of a verb or preposition). The subject pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, we, and they, while the object pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

For example, in the sentence "I like your dress," "I" is a subject pronoun, and in "Can you help me, please?" "me" is an object pronoun. When referring to a person whose gender is unknown or unspecified, the pronoun "they" is commonly used with a plural verb form, a usage that has historical roots in English and is widely accepted in modern usage.

Personal pronouns also reflect grammatical gender in the third person singular: "he" and "him" for masculine, "she" and "her" for feminine, and "it" for neutral or inanimate objects. In some cases, pronouns can refer to institutions, organizations, or abstract ideas, such as "They serve good food here" (referring to a restaurant). Additionally, "it" can be used to refer to oneself on the telephone ("It's George") or to identify someone when their identity is unknown ("Who is it?").

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number and person. For instance, if the antecedent is plural, the pronoun must also be plural (e.g., "Those trips are tiring. They get me down" ). Collective nouns, despite referring to groups, are typically treated as singular and take singular pronouns (e.g., "The company is doing well. It has expanded" ).

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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Personal_pronoun
Personal pronoun - Wikipedia
3 weeks ago - Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as I), second person (as you), or third person (as she, it, he). Personal pronouns may also take different forms depending on number (usually singular or plural), grammatical ...
Types and forms
Syntax
Capitalization
Examples
Further reading
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Grammarly
grammarly.com › blog › parts-of-speech › personal-pronouns
What are Personal Pronouns? Rules and Examples | Grammarly
6 October 2022 - A personal pronoun is a short word we use as a simple substitute for the proper name of a person. Each of the English personal pronouns shows us the grammatical person, gender, number, and case of the noun it replaces.
Discussions
Thoughts on adding personal pronouns (i.e. she/her) to CV?

I’m a transguy and I feel like a CV isn’t the place to do that. Pronouns are better fit for social media descriptions.

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🌐 r/gradadmissions
6
3
13 October 2017
Why 'custom' personal pronouns don't work: a linguistic perspective
This is one of those posts that I love despite not agreeing with everything in it. Bravo. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/lgbt
102
274
17 March 2015
How do you feel about all these new gender pronouns?

If it makes people happy to use them as they see fit, cool. If you don't like it, then they clearly aren't for you, just don't be a dick about it.

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🌐 r/AskReddit
167
1
7 February 2016
The whole personal pronouns and trans movement is a disgrace

Huh, strange. I was mentally ill with suicidal depression but then I went on estrogen (I'm MtF) and now I actually enjoy life.... Also btw just cause you say that identifying as a gender doesn't make a person that gender doesn't mean what you say is true :)))))

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🌐 r/unpopularopinion
62
31
20 January 2015
CMV: Using they/them as singular gender pronouns is unnecessarily confusing and people should just stick to either he/him or she/her.

Most people already use "they/them" to refer to someone of unknown or unimportant gender. For example consider this pair of sentences:

Amy: What did your principal do then?

Bob: They went on a drug-fueled rampage through the school, looking for the Eric Stevens.

That's a completely natural pair of sentences that I could imagine basically anyone uttering that uses "they" to refer to a person of unimportant gender. And they has been used like this since at least the 16th century, as it's in at least some of Shakespeare's plays. So really using "they" in the singular is not wrong or even new, and using "they" to refer to people of non-binary gender is not that big of an innovation.

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🌐 r/changemyview
146
51
9 May 2017
CMV: You shouldn't care what pronouns other people use.

... My view on this whole thing has always been very libertarian. It seems to me, for example, that if someone identifies as a woman, and wants to be refereed to using she/her pronouns, why not just honor that? ...

Can you explain how you think that expecting other people to change their behavior in order to comply with your social agenda is libertarian?

"I support anyone's right to be who they want to be. My question is: to what extent do I have to participate in your self-image?" -Dave Chappelle

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🌐 r/changemyview
581
195
16 November 2016
What is the craziest set of personal pronouns you have seen?
I believe there are some Oceanic languages of Papua New Guinea with five numbers in the independent pronouns (singular, dual, trial/paucal, paucal/greater paucal, plural) and clusivity, with a separate set of disjunctive pronouns with the same paradgim. I can't remember which ones though. If you look for the same but with only three or four numbers, you should find a few though. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/linguistics
154
62
14 January 2013
CMV: Pronouns should be practical

“that’s transphobic and you’re a bigot.”

Have you ever encountered that in real life?

A lot of people like to bring these things up when talking about pronouns, and when they're asked to elaborate on their experiences they've usually only ever encountered this from some screenshot on tumblr and go on to assume its like this IRL.

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🌐 r/changemyview
99
12
23 October 2014
Does anyone use we/us/our personal pronouns?
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (musician, poet, performance artist, occultist, etc.) uses "we" pronouns, if I remember correctly, to keep alive the memory of their late spouse, who died of stomach cancer. The couple also undertook a "pandrogeny" project, "to break down the limitations of biological sex and express their unconditional love for each other." As a part of this project, they underwent two hundred thousand dollars' worth of surgeries to physically resemble each other. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/NonBinary
25
33
26 January 2019
People also ask
What are examples of personal pronouns?
The personal pronouns for subjects are I, you, he, she, it, we, and they. For objects, they are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.
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grammarly.com
grammarly.com › blog › parts-of-speech › personal-pronouns
What are Personal Pronouns? Rules and Examples | Grammarly
What are preferred pronouns?
The term preferred pronouns is used to mean the (third-person) personal pronouns a person identifies with and would like to be referred to by. People usually state the subject and object pronoun (e.g., “she/her”) but may also include the possessive (e.g., “she/her/hers”). · Most people go by the masculine “he/him,” the feminine “she/her,” the gender-neutral singular “they/them,” or some combination of these. There are also neopronouns used to express nonbinary gender identity, such as “xe/xem.” These are less common than the singular “they.” · The practice of stating one’s preferred pronouns (
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scribbr.com
scribbr.com › home › personal pronouns | definition, list & examples
Personal Pronouns | Definition, List & Examples
Should personal pronouns be capitalized?
Only the personal pronoun I should be capitalized all the time. The other pronouns are only capitalized when they begin a sentence or form a proper noun (such as the movie Us).
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grammarly.com
grammarly.com › blog › parts-of-speech › personal-pronouns
What are Personal Pronouns? Rules and Examples | Grammarly
Videos
🌐 YouTube
Personal Pronouns in English | Learn Subject and Object Pronouns ...
29 October 2025
07:10
🌐 YouTube
Personal Pronouns for Kids - YouTube
17 June 2020
167K
17:29
🌐 YouTube
ALL PERSONAL PRONOUNS | I, me, my, mine, myself ... - YouTube
14 September 2022
1.31M
🌐 khanacademy.org
Personal pronouns (video) | Three Questions
06:10
🌐 YouTube
Personal Pronouns | Award Winning Personal Pronoun Teaching Video ...
22 August 2019
04:01
🌐 YouTube
Pronouns for Kids! | What are Pronouns? | All About Pronouns | ...
15 January 2024
View all
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Excelsior OWL
owl.excelsior.edu › grammar essentials › parts of speech › pronouns › personal pronouns
Personal Pronouns - Excelsior OWL
1 April 2022 - Personal pronouns are pronouns that take the place of common and proper nouns and refer to people and things. Essentially, they “stand in” for people and things when you want to make sure you are not repeating yourself by having to rename people and things all the time.
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Pronouns.org
pronouns.org › what-and-why
What Are Pronouns? Why Do They Matter? — Pronouns.org Resources on Personal Pronouns
When we refer to "personal" pronouns, we don't mean that these pronouns are necessarily private information (generally they are not), we mean that they are pronouns referring to a unique and individual person.
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BBC
bbc.co.uk › bitesize › articles › z37xrwx
What is a pronoun? Definition and examples - BBC Bitesize
18 March 2024 - Now rather than have 'him' tell 'Holly', we could use our friend the pronoun again and 'he' could tell 'her'. Then 'she' could tell the Queen… · Lizard Monster: …that 'I' have arrived for tea. ... Personal pronouns are short words used to replace yourself or a person’s name.
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Scribbr
scribbr.com › home › personal pronouns | definition, list & examples
Personal Pronouns | Definition, List & Examples
31 January 2025 - Personal pronouns are words like “you” that refer to the person speaking or writing, to the person they’re addressing, or to other people and things. Like
Find elsewhere
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University of Hull Library
libguides.hull.ac.uk › writing › pronouns
Personal pronouns - Writing academically - Library at University of Hull
Personal pronouns are used to replace people, places or things to make sentences shorter and clearer. Examples of personal pronouns include: I, we, it, they, you, and she.
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Mango Languages
mangolanguages.com › resources › learn › grammar › english › what-are-english-personal-pronouns
What are English personal pronouns?
23 September 2025 - Personal pronouns are words that point back to a noun or replace a noun. Remember, a noun is a word for a person, a place, an object, or even an idea.
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British Council
learnenglish.britishcouncil.org › grammar › english-grammar-reference › personal-pronouns
Personal pronouns | LearnEnglish
23 March 2022 - Learn about personal pronouns like I, me, you, we and us and do the exercises to practise using them.
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North Dakota Department of Health
hhs.nd.gov › sites › www › files › documents › DOH Legacy › Pronouns.pdf pdf
A Guide to Using Personal Pronouns What is a pronoun and why do they matter?
name] and I use the pronouns [your pronouns]. What are the names and/or pronouns that you ... Also know that it’s okay if a person does not want to share their pronouns with you.
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Ginger Software
gingersoftware.com › content › grammar-rules › personal-pronouns
English Grammar Rules - Personal Pronouns
In essence, it’s any pronoun that is used to replace a common or proper noun as a sentence’s subject. If you are using a personal pronoun to talk about a person, animal, place, or thing that also happens to be the subject of a sentence, then it is classified as both a personal pronoun and a subject pronoun.
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mySJC
my.sjcme.edu › jedi › understanding-and-using-personal-pronouns
Understanding and Using Personal Pronouns - mySJC Dashboard
28 November 2023 - Personal pronouns, or third-person pronouns, refer specifically to words that we use instead of using somebody’s name in a sentence (ex: he, him, his, she, her, hers, they, them, theirs).
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Merriam-Webster
merriam-webster.com › dictionary › personal pronoun
PERSONAL PRONOUN Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of PERSONAL PRONOUN is a pronoun (such as I, you, or they) that expresses a distinction of person.
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Grammar Monster
grammar-monster.com › glossary › personal_pronouns.htm
Personal Pronouns: English Grammar
Personal pronouns are words that represent people or things. The following are personal pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, and them.
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Twinkl
twinkl.com › teaching-wiki › personal-pronoun
What is a Personal Pronoun?
Twinkl's Teaching Wiki gives explanations of common terms and key vocabulary used in teaching, and shows related Twinkl resources for each term.
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Khan Academy
khanacademy.org › humanities › grammar › parts-of-speech-the-pronoun › introduction-to-pronouns › e › meet-the-personal-pronoun
Meet the personal pronoun (practice)
We cannot provide a description for this page right now
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Troy University
troy.edu › _assets › center-student-success › _documents › learning-center › grammar-mechanics › personal-pronouns.pdf pdf
Troy University Writing Center PERSONAL PRONOUNS
(masculine, feminine, or neuter [Only in third person, singular, is gender relevant.]), (2) number ... The girl washed her hands. The girls washed their hands. Each boy washed his hands. Read the following sentences, identifying the pronouns.
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Cambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › us › grammar › british-grammar › pronouns-personal-i-me-you-him-it-they-etc
Pronouns: personal ( I, me, you, him, it, they, etc.) - Cambridge Grammar
Personal pronouns show person and number. He, she, him and her show gender.
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Lumen Learning
courses.lumenlearning.com › suny-geneseo-guidetowriting › chapter › personal-pronouns
Personal Pronouns | Conventions of College Writing
English personal pronouns have two cases: subject and object (there are also possessive pronouns, which we’ll discuss next). Subject-case pronouns are used when the pronoun is doing the action. (I like to eat chips, but she does not). Object-case pronouns are used when something is being done to the pronoun (John likes me but not her).
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Montgomery County PA
montgomerycountypa.gov › DocumentCenter › View › 43919 › Personal-Pronoun-Guide pdf
A Guide to Using Personal Pronouns
like a name, we take the time to learn preferred pronouns rather than making assumptions about · how to refer to people in conversation or writing. While it may be our habit to refer to everyone as · “he” or “she” based on appearances, we need to recognize that gender is a spectrum, and no one · can assume a person’s gender or a person’s preferred pronouns based on their appearance.
personal pronouns - Brave Search