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.
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 ...
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 ...
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?
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 ...
13
votes
9answers
810 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?
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" ...
6
votes
1answer
521 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
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
570 views
What is the proper usage of “Y'all” in southern American dialects
The construction of the word to me implies that "you" is singular, whereas "y'all" is plural.
To a football team: "Y'all are going to play a great game."
To a tennis player: "You are going to play a ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Is naming the first person last proper grammar or just proper manners? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“My friends and I” vs. “My friends and me” vs. “Me and my friends”
I cringe when someone does not follow the rule of naming the first person last:
Who went to the ...
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 ...
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 ...
7
votes
5answers
1k views
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, Glorfindel, ...
5
votes
0answers
503 views
When do I use “me” and when “I”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Should I put myself last?
I get this mixed up so often. Should I say:
Me and Rob are going swimming.
or
I and Rob are going swimming.
I know the latter ...
28
votes
6answers
11k views
Use of “I”, “we” and the passive voice in a scientific thesis [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Style Question: Use of “we” vs. “I” vs. passive voice in a dissertation
When the first person voice is used in scientific writing it is mostly ...
2
votes
4answers
3k views
“He” / “she” vs. “it” regarding beloved objects
Is that normal to regard a beloved object (an animal, a car, a book) as he/she? If yes, what gender should be used in this case?
One comment in this question touched the tendency to humanize things ...
6
votes
3answers
4k views
“People like you” versus “people like yourself”?
In the latest South Park episode, I noticed a line:
We have so many abandoned babies and
not enough people like yourself who
care.
Which kinda struck me, because I'd expect it to be people ...
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?
14
votes
4answers
636 views
Advice for using multiple same-gender personal pronouns in the same sentence
I have often struggled with sentences that contain two characters of the same gender. For example, if there are two females, Alice and Carol, then the following sentence can be confusing.
Alice ...
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.
4
votes
5answers
399 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
295 views
How to call attention to “I” without “I myself” or the pretentious “even I”?
I find that in persuasive conversation, whether written or oral, it is sometimes useful to draw attention to the "I" in the sentence, giving the connotation that you are confessing or conceding to ...
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 ...
