Personal pronouns

The pronounsIn general, they are words that are placed in sentences to replace nouns or names because it is not necessary to name them well to avoid repeating them. This means that they represent living beings, things or facts that are known by the people who are part of a communicative act.

In this text, we are going to focus on a very specific type of pronouns: personal pronouns.

What are personal pronouns?

The personal pronouns They indicate the participants of a narrative regardless of whether they are people, animals, things or events and whether their function is as a subject or complement, as we will see later. In this way, the name or names are designated a grammatical person with its corresponding gender and number; For example:

We We will go to the restaurant directly.

It refers to the person who speaks and to other people, all of whom are female and known both to the person transmitting the message (which is included in it) and to the person who receives it.

They They don’t have any interesting news to tell us.

It refers to third parties who, most likely, are male and who are known by both the sender and the receiver of the message.

Which are the personal pronouns?

The personal pronounsas mentioned in the previous section, indicate the different grammatical persons that can be stated:

– First person singular or plural: this is the person who issues the message. Example:

I I prepare lasagna the same as my father’s.
Us We have been admirers of that singer for years.

– Second person singular or plural: this is the person who receives the message.

You You never throw away your purchase receipts.
You You have two children each.

– Third person singular or plural: this is another subject about whom the sender and receiver exchange information.

He He is not surprised by anything.
They They are used to traveling by train.

In addition, two types of personal pronouns can be differentiated:

TONIC PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

These are personal pronouns that perform the function of subject (author of the action of the verb), attribute (predicate with copulatory verb) or as a preposition term (complement).

She will buy the eggs to make the cake. (Subject function: the personal pronoun agrees with the verb)

You are always you.

(Function of subject and attribute, the pronoun agrees with the verb in both cases because it refers to the same person).

In the case of preposition terms, the pronoun does not agree with the verb, it is about indicating the company or the instrument with which the action is carried out; For example:

Maria will pass with we all the vacations. will repair it with she (the wrench) in a moment.

In these cases the pronoun does not agree with the verb because they are functioning as a complement, not as the author of the action.

These pronouns They can be placed in the subject or predicate of sentences and can even be omitted in some cases; For example:

I don’t have permission to enter that room. (I)
You always buy too many napkins. (You)

In both cases, you know who the subject is thanks to the verbal form; Therefore, the omission is admitted (information is not lost).

UNCONSTRUCTED PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

These are personal pronouns that function within the sentence as non-prepositional complements or as part of pronominal verbs. Generally, its main functions are direct object or indirect object; although they also act as an attribute on some occasions. Some examples would be:

Rocío has a blue comb, it use every day. (Direct complement function, refers to the comb).

Ernesto visits his mother every day and you bring the bread (Indirect object function, refers to the mother).

Irene does not want stainHE hands with ink. (forming part of a pronominal verb).

The following table shows all the personal pronouns taking into account the previous explanations:

The pronouns with me, with you and with stand out, as they are formed with a preceding preposition. Examples of sentences that include them:

He didn’t want to come with me to class. This with you my brother Jaime? They brought with him the entire notebook package.

Finally, it should be noted that the functions performed unstressed personal pronouns They make them always located in the predicate. Let’s look at a few more examples:

In general, personal pronouns are used a lot when the speech includes several sentences or a dialogue is taking place because they avoid repetitions and make the argument flow with an adequate rhythm. The important thing is to check that everyone who is part of the communicative act knows which reference they are replacing at all times.

Below, we leave you some resources to practice.

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Definition of personal pronouns

Analysis of personal pronouns

Tonic and unstressed personal pronouns

Personal pronouns 1

Personal pronouns 2

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