Questions tagged [personal-pronouns]
Questions related to personal pronoun, an independent pronoun which can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case.
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How are pronoun ambiguities resolved?
Are pronoun referents in English resolved syntactically or semantically? Do they always refer to the closest matching noun?
A Wikipedia article has these examples:
We gave the bananas to the monkeys ...
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Use of "myself" in business-speak
Occasionally, I will hear or read coworkers using "myself" in place of "me," as in:
If you have any questions, you can contact Gimli or myself.
I have sent the list to Legolas, ...
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Why is "he" twice as common as "she" in the English language
When you look at word frequency data in English such as the Corpus Of Contemporary American English (COCA) he appears on 16th place with 6500 occurrences per mil and she at 35th place with 3210 per ...
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"...his parents' dream of *him* achieving a Cambridge degree." What is the function of "him" here? [duplicate]
I have a problem analysing this sentence from the point of finite/nonfinite clauses, clause elements and their functions:
He does not want to destroy his parents' dream of him achieving a Cambridge ...
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Did English ever have a formal version of "you"?
Off the top of my head, Danish "De" (practically never used), German "Sie", Chinese "您", French "vous", Spanish "usted" are formal ways of addressing ...
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Quantifier Floating and Subject Pronouns
I did some research about this topic; my main question is
Are some placements more well-regarded than others? I mean, are quantifiers before personal pronouns more descriptive grammar for example?
...
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Why is "it" used instead of "he/she" for human being in "it becomes a wise and virtuous man…"?
Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.
—Thomas Aquinas
Is the bold phrase ...
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Why do some people start with subject 'I' and later shift to 'we'?
This is something I have noticed on a fairly regular basis, and this is a recent example, where the questioner starts by saying "I'm working on" and ends up asking "How do we...?"
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Which English dialects have 2nd person plural?
"Y'all" is the famous southern US form of the 2nd person plural. The Brooklyn / Italian-American "youse" might be another.
While the existence and usage of "y'all" has been addressed somewhat ...
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Could "them" mean "those"?
Background
Nowadays, I see "them" used to mean "those" a lot. I don't know if it was as common in the past.
For example, take "one of them people".
On researching about ...
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"Me and my wife" or "my wife and me"
Which order is more correct: me and my wife or my wife and me? The sentence in which this is used is
Ms. Smith informed me and my wife that she was afraid of being accosted.
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Personal pronouns in 18th-century Cornish English
I think in the year 1700 there were still a few adults in Cornwall whose usual mode of communication among themselves was the rapidly dying Cornish language, but only a tiny number of children could ...
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What is the correct way to say "It was this week that Justin and my lives changed forever"?
What is the correct way to indicate "Justin and I" as being possessive of our individual lives in this sentence? Is there a way to do this without restructuring the sentence?
A friend of mine posted ...
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What explains the restrictions on determinative "you"?
As Huddleston & Pullum note, "you" can sometimes be used as a determiner:
You idiots never learn.
I'll never understand you idiots.
But this generally can't occur in the singular:
*...
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Whom can I trust, if not ____. a) he b) him which one is grammatical? [duplicate]
I know about the conditional sentences that go as following:
"If I were he, I would have forgotten the whole lesson."
In the sentence above, "he" is preferable to "him,"...
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Why is "be" the only English verb that inflects for grammatical person, not just for grammatical number like all the rest of them?
Why do we say “I am a teacher” instead of “I is a teacher” considering that I is a singular pronoun not a plural pronoun? Don’t singulars always take -s forms? Why does be work differently?
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How to write s/he at the beginning of a sentence? [closed]
In a document I want to use the gender form of personal pronouns. But if I use "s/he" at the beginning of a sentence, are both "s" and "h" to be written in capitals? It ...
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Usage of they/them as a pronoun in confusing sentences [duplicate]
Pronouns are an integral part of the english language. However, they can also cause confusion and problems within communication, especially in the modern era, as some people choose to use ...
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Difference between "Please don't be long" and "Please don't YOU be long" [duplicate]
In the song "Blue Jay Way" from the Beatles, we've got the following lyrics :
Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
I'm (obviously) not a native English speaker but the first ...
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When referring to oneself using pronouns only, would it be appropriate to use "me" instead of "myself"?
When you refer to yourself without saying your name, (without gendered pronouns) would it be of appropriate use to say "me" instead of "myself"?
for example:
I would give me a big ...
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When is the construction "I myself" suitable? [duplicate]
A previous question, How to call attention to "I" without "I myself" or the pretentious "Even I"?, suggested that the "I myself" construction is often used for emphasis, with one answer correctly ...
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How should I refer to a person without identifying them? Can I use 'one'? [closed]
If I wish to refer to an individual person but without describing that person or drawing attention to the characteristics of that person or without identifying that person - how should I do it ?
The ...
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When is it acceptable to address someone else in the first person, as in the classic nurse's question to a patient: "How are we this morning?"
I am sure the nurse means this question as bright and breezy, perhaps inviting the response "We are (more likely "I am") fine, thank you." However, it is hard to avoid the ...
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The English usage of the subject pronoun "We"
Can "We" be used as an indefinite pronoun such as "Everybody" or "One" to refer to people in general.
Example: One cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.
It is a (French) proverb originally ...
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Choice of “it” versus “he/she”
I am not sure what is the underlying rule for when the use of “it” is appropriate and when “he / she”. Consider the following two examples:
There is a lady at the door. It is my aunt.
Do you know ...
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Talking about a third person, formally [closed]
I am talking about my professor to his secretary. Is it polite and formal to refer to him as "he"? or should I use "they"?
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"Will I open this box?" - "No, you mustn't."
I'm struggling with "will I" in this sentence.
Is it grammatically correct?
I know that "shall I" would be fine, but does "will I" work too?
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Why is emphatic "Yes, I know THAT" okay, but not "Yes, I know IT"?
In the context of this ELL question asking about using pronoun "it" as an object, it struck me that whereas it's perfectly natural to place heavy stress for emphasis on the "...
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Suggestions to indicate the second person pronoun "you" is singular?
Do you have any suggestions to clearly show that the second person pronoun is singular, not simply basing it on context? I would appreciate hearing your ideas!
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American vs British English: using 3rd person singular pronoun or person's name?
I grew up in the UK and now have a lot of American friends and colleagues; I tend to notice an almost systematic difference in the way Americans use 3rd person singular pronouns in preference to a ...
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"Being [he/him] is not easy." Which is prescriptively "correct"?
"It is I" follows a well-known prescriptivist rule
This question is about prescriptive grammar. It’s a fairly well-known prescriptivist rule that “me, him, her, them” (in other words, pronouns in the ...
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Important! Is there a term for misusing the pronoun “you”? [duplicate]
This is somewhat challenging to describe but I’m taking a crack at it. I have the tendency to use the pronoun “you” when speaking to someone about an event, or story. I would almost describe it as a ...
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Would pronouns be objective or subjective in this sentence?
Sentence:
John's entire plan was nothing more than him/he and me/I walking by
his neighbors' houses armed with twenty-eight inches of potentially
bone-crushing sports equipment.
Should I use "...
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I, and I/me alone, did it all
I, and I/me alone, did it all.
Which option, I or me, and why, should be used in a parenthetical like this one?
Secondly, is it the same situation as in Me/I alone, I did it ?
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'She' as sentence object [duplicate]
In the following sentence from Lolita, Humbert Humbert, in describing with maximum condescension the character of his new wife, states:
'I had always been aware of the possessive streak in her, but I ...
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Can you use "him" for a wolf?
I encountered this:
This is like dangling a big, juicy steak in front of a wolf, without letting him eat it.
Using "him" for a wolf sounds sort of non-native English, as if the sentence ...
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Analyzing 'genitive/accusative + V-ing phrase (gerund-participle phrase)' as different constructions
(1) I regretted [his leaving the firm].
(2) I regretted [him leaving the firm].
(3) I regretted [leaving the firm].
(4) He didn’t bother [giving me a copy].
Regarding the above sentences The ...
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Using pronoun "it" instead of (personal) pronouns "her" or "him"
Can pronoun "it" be used instead of (personal) pronouns "her" or "him" in a disparaging/derogative manner especially in the personal pronouns?
I've watched a movie wherein a dead body was found and, ...
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there is, there are with personal pronouns
I almost never see "there is/are" used with personal pronouns. Why do they not get along with each other?
1 There is me in this house.
2 There are them in this town.
I think they are wrong. But ...
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Which pronoun is used for Spirit or Ghost and is there a rule that says we must use certain pronoun for the Spirit? Is it a common gender noun?
Which pronoun is used for the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost) in Christian theology? Is there a rule that says we must use certain pronoun for the Spirit? And is it a common gender noun?
The controversy ...
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What is the difference between “they” and “it” for people, especially for those people who identify as non-binary?
I’ve heard that they is used as a word to refer to people who are
non-binary. Since English is not my first language, I’m not sure what the
difference is between they and it in these usages.
Of course,...
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Personal pronouns interacting with word order [duplicate]
Many will be familiar already with
the technical details of when to use 'I' and 'me' in a sentence.
I hit him, he hit me, etc.
What I'm confused about is cases such as "me and John went to the ...
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Is there a correct gender-neutral singular pronoun ("his" vs. "her" vs. "their")?
Is there a pronoun I can use as a gender-neutral pronoun when referring back to a singular noun phrase?
Each student should save his questions until the end.
Each student should save her questions ...
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Can the gerund clause take a personal pronoun as its subject in “It’s no use (his?) crying over lost love”?
From a grammar book, I’ve have learned that a gerund clause can be
optionally preceded by a personal pronoun to show the logical
subject of the verb; that is, whoever is doing the gerund’s ...
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What do you call someone who studies letters?
I recently asked a question for nouns pertaining to people who write letters. But is there a word to call someone who studies letters (academically)?
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What do you call a person who writes letters?
I found, from my search, that epistolary is an adjective which could refer to the writing of letters. But is there noun of this to call someone who writes letters?
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True or False: "English lacks a standard gender-neutral second-person plural pronoun."
It's news to me, but apparently Joe Pinsker (affiliated with The Atlantic?) says so in this article.
The problem, for those who want to ditch [the usage of] "guys", is that their language ...
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Why should the first person pronoun 'I' always be capitalized?
Why should we capitalize the first person pronoun 'I' even when it does not appear at the beginning of a sentence? Why is it not the case for other pronouns?
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Why do we use the objective case pronoun "me" in "He can watch me clean the car"?
He can watch me clean the car.
In this sentence, the pronoun me is used as the object of the verb watch. But isn't me also acting as the subject of the verb 'clean' and therefore should be I instead? ...
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Can I Switch from "it" to "he" or "she" when referring to an animal in a story? [closed]
This one is a question I can't seem to find an answer for. I do have a friend, a professional editor, who told me she saw no problem with me switching from "it" to "he" or "she" when referring to an ...
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