Questions related to personal pronoun, an independent pronoun which can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case.
86
votes
15answers
6k views
Is there a correct gender-neutral, singular pronoun (“his” versus “her” versus “their”)?
Is there a pronoun I can use as a gender-neutral pronoun?
Each student should save his questions until the end.
Each student should save her questions until the end.
0
votes
0answers
55 views
What does “I” really mean? [closed]
When we refer to a human being by "I"/"you"/"he"/"she"/"Mary", what do we really mean? The more I think about it, the more confused I get. Do we mean living body or emotional/psychological world or ...
6
votes
6answers
3k views
“Your and my [something]” vs “Yours and my…”
Prompted by comments against this question, I'd like some help figuring out why some people (myself included) prefer yours over the apparently more logical/grammatically consistent your in this kind ...
0
votes
4answers
133 views
When are you 'You', and when 'you'?
When is it in spelling that the personal pronoun 'you' should be written with capital Y?
-1
votes
0answers
78 views
Skipping the words 'you' and 'did' in spoken English
Do sentences 1 and 2 mean the same thing? Are they when speaking? If yes, is the first sentence also acceptable in written English?
1) Don't see anything?
2) Don't you see anything?
How about ...
0
votes
2answers
152 views
Should a photograph label read “you and I” or “you and me”? [duplicate]
I had a debate with my friend about this topic because he had a photo captioned:
Seth and I playing lion king
and I said it should be
Seth and me playing lion king
Which is correct?
4
votes
4answers
9k views
When to use “me” or “myself”?
Which one is correct:
Someone like me...
or
Someone like myself...
Is "like myself" ever correct?
0
votes
0answers
101 views
“Theirs” vs. “their’s” [closed]
Which of the following two sentences is correct?
Your grammar is terrible, but you insult people for theirs?
Your grammar is terrible, but you insult people for their’s?
What would be correct ...
10
votes
7answers
6k views
Which is correct: “If it were I” or “If it were me”?
I'm fairly sure it's the former, but it sounds even more stilted than the usual cases in which "I" is less common, but more correct.
11
votes
2answers
138 views
Art cold? To what extent can pronouns be dropped in English?
Many European languages conjugate their verbs, thus:
I am
You are | Thou art
She is
We are
You are
They are
The form of the verb changes, depending on the person. In some languages ...
6
votes
1answer
523 views
Why do we say “of mine/of his” instead of “of me/of him”?
He's a friend of mine.
That's a car of his.
Why do we use the possessive when the meaning would be the same while not using it (e.g. a friend of me and a car of him)? I thought maybe it is ...
13
votes
5answers
859 views
Why 'a friend of mine' is not 'my friend's friend'?
I have some questions about the expression "a friend of mine" and I'm quite confused with it. Actually I have found some threads about this topic but they don't hit my point. I'm not a native English ...
0
votes
2answers
305 views
Should a company be referred to as “he/she” or as “it”?
When a customer represents a company, not a person, and a pronoun is needed to refer back to that customer, should one use he/she, or should one use it?
2
votes
2answers
204 views
Should personal pronouns always be placed at the end of a list? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“My friends and I” vs. “My friends and me” vs. “Me and my friends”
Is naming the first person last proper grammar or just proper manners?
“Julio and I” vs “I and Julio”
...
-2
votes
1answer
132 views
Which is correct, I or me? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When do I use “I” instead of “me?”
Which is correct?
The photo shows my kids and me at the party.
The photo shows my kids and I at the party
Another one: ...
0
votes
2answers
103 views
Which pronoun to to replace single antecedent?
This is my all-time question. This time, I was writing specifications of my application and came up with this question. Which one of the following is more commonly used than the others? Note that I'm ...
8
votes
3answers
801 views
How are pronouns resolved?
Are pronouns 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 because ...
5
votes
5answers
296 views
Can 'one' replace an antecedent?
Over at Judaism.SE someone asked a question with the title
(1) What is the source for not walking with one's hands behind his back
and someone else edited it to read
(2) What is the source ...
13
votes
9answers
812 views
What rules make “Remember me, who am your friend” grammatical?
An acquaintance recalled this specific example from an English textbook, but it is jarring to my native ear. Is this an example of prescriptive grammarians gone wild?
2
votes
1answer
174 views
What is the correct usage for I'm a girl in my early twenties?
Which is grammatically correct?
I am a girl in my early twenties.
or
I am a girl in her early twenties.
47
votes
2answers
6k views
Why should the first person pronoun 'I' always be capitalized?
Why should we capitalize first person pronoun 'I' even if it does not appear in the beginning of a sentence? Why it is not the case for other pronouns?
2
votes
3answers
278 views
“He” or “she”, “his” or “her” for an ambiguous name
In Finland Kari is boy's name and in Norway it is girl's name. Suppose I meet a Norwegian Kari. Which one is correct?
First I heard his/her name I thought he/she is a boy but the I realized he/she ...
143
votes
5answers
12k views
Did English ever have a formal version of “you”?
From the top of my head, Danish "de" (practically never used), German "Sie", Chinese "您", French "vous", Spanish "usted" are a formal way of addressing someone, especially if one isn't familiar with ...
0
votes
1answer
433 views
“He and I”, “Him and me” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“My friends and I” vs. “My friends and me” vs. “Me and my friends”
Somebody taught me a rule of thumb how to discern if I should use "I" or "Me" when adding self to the ...
15
votes
8answers
5k views
Is it poor form to start too many sentences with I?
I often find myself writing a lot of comments to blog posts and responses on forums, and have noticed a tendency to start a lot of sentences with 'I'. 'I think...', 'I had no idea', 'I used to...' ...
45
votes
5answers
11k views
“My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner”
I just stumbled upon a Reddit post titled:
My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner. How does it look?
Sure enough, the top comment immediately points out that it should be "my wife's and ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
“I am I”, “I am myself”, or “I am me”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When is it correct to use “yourself” and “myself” (versus “you” and “me”)?
According to Google Ngram, "I am myself" is more common that "I am I", but which is correct?
...
13
votes
4answers
3k views
Referring to objects as “she”
Sometimes people are referring to mechanical objects as "she":
I love my car. She always gets the best service.
Are there any rules when it is appropriate to use "she" instead of it, and is "he" ...
3
votes
1answer
247 views
What's the right possessive pronoun for “nobody”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is there a correct gender-neutral, singular pronoun (“his” versus “her” versus “their”)?
None as plural indefinite pronoun
Should ...
2
votes
2answers
175 views
Proper usage of pronouns
As an ESL student, sometimes I wonder whether I use too many pronouns. For example:
She grabbed her purse, she took some money and then she went to buy some groceries. After that she returned ...
4
votes
3answers
220 views
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 ...
4
votes
5answers
400 views
Using “she” with gender-neutral nouns
The song “Frozen” from Madonna’s Ray of Light (1998) contains the lyrics:
Love is a bird, she needs to fly,
Let all the hurt inside of you die.
Does she refer to bird or love? And why is it ...
1
vote
0answers
164 views
How to take the gender of an anonymous person into consideration? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Gender neutral pronoun
Very often, I find myself writing about a user, an anonymous person whose gender I don't know.
Right after mentioning this abstract user, I need ...
0
votes
2answers
106 views
Why are “player”, “researcher” and “designer” referred to by a feminine gender specific pronoun? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Can the feminine pronouns be gender-neutral?
Reason for the current trend to use "she" as the gender-neutral pronoun?
In a lot of academic literature that I'm reading ...
0
votes
2answers
208 views
“We”, “I”, “this author”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Style Question: Use of “we” vs. “I” vs. passive voice in a dissertation
Use of “I”, “we” and the passive voice in a scientific thesis
For my ...
2
votes
1answer
236 views
Can we say that “he” and “she” are cognates?
If they are cognates,what happened to the mophological changes on them historically?Such as the emergence of "h" in "she"?
she
mid-12c., probably evolving from O.E. seo, sio (acc. sie), fem. of ...
7
votes
8answers
395 views
Rewrite this grammatically troubling movie poster
On a Wiki-walk the other day, I stumbled across the movie poster for Devil. The tagline on the poster is:
Five strangers trapped. One of them is not what they seem.
The writer was obviously ...
9
votes
9answers
490 views
T-V distinction
In many languages, there is such thing as T-V distinction. Basically, it's when you use different pronouns in "formal" (or "polite") speech, and in informal speech.
Now, I do realize there is no ...
2
votes
3answers
284 views
“The great I” vs “The great me”
Are both sentences below grammatically correct?
The great I.
The great me.
What is the grammatical breakdown in each case?
26
votes
6answers
19k views
Is it correct to use “their” instead of “his or her”?
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in their bookcase.
or should it be:
Anyone who loves the English language should ...
3
votes
2answers
838 views
In a business proposal, which personal pronoun should be used?
Which personal pronoun would you use in a business proposal?
Most people either go with first or third person, e.g.,
We propose this marketing plan.
or
Company x proposes this marketing ...
5
votes
2answers
229 views
“Nobody will help you but me” vs. “Nobody will help you but I”
As has been shown in another question, in comparisons with than both the accusative and the nominative are possible and grammatical:
He loves you more than I.
He loves you more than me.
...
13
votes
3answers
10k views
Which is correct: “This is her” or “This is she”?
Upon answering the telephone, the person calling asks if Joan is available. If Joan is the person who answered the phone, should she say "This is her" or "This is she"?
4
votes
2answers
208 views
in spite of him/his
Jane told Marcos that in spite of (him/his) being small, he would definitely be a great asset to the team because of his athletic abilities.
In the above sentence, which of him/his is correct and ...
5
votes
1answer
694 views
It is I who am at fault? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“It is they who lied” or “it is them who lied?”
What rules make “Remember me, who am your friend” grammatical?
Which one of these is correct?
It is I who am at ...
0
votes
1answer
134 views
Why is the accusative case used for a “topic”?
If I were to write a book about myself, Me would be a more natural-sounding title than I. Also, we say the us-vs.-them mentality instead of the we-vs.-they mentality.
4
votes
2answers
359 views
Term for types of first person plural
I've noticed that there are two types of first person plural – one where the addressee is included, and one where she or he isn't. For example:
With addressee included:
Let us go.
What's our plan?
...
3
votes
7answers
222 views
Name a person who loves to do things manually
What will you call a person who loves to do things manually rather than using any technology tools.
4
votes
3answers
510 views
comparative construction used with pronouns, especially 'her'
I was recently pulled up by a colleague when I made a statement along the lines of I am a better player than her. My colleague suggested the correct statement should be better player than she is ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
“One of them was/were you”
If I am talking to somebody about a certain group of people in the third person, and then want to refer to the person I am talking with as one of those people, which do I say?
One of them were you
...
