Pronouns are words we use in the place of a full noun.
We have both subject and object pronouns:
| Subject | Object |
|---|---|
| I | me |
| you | you |
| he | him |
| she | her |
| it | it |
| we | us |
| you | you |
| they | them |
We use he/him to refer to men, and she/her to refer to women. When we are not sure if we are talking about a man or a woman we use they/them.
This is Jack. He’s my brother. I don’t think you have met him.
This is Angela. She’s my sister. Have you met her before?
Talk to a friend. Ask them to help you.
You could go to a doctor. They might help you.
Subject pronouns
We use subject pronouns as subject of the verb:
I like your dress.
You are late.
He is my friend
It is raining
She is on holiday
We live in England.
They come from London.
| Warning |
|---|
|
Remember: English clauses always have a subject: His father has just retired. If there is no other subject we use it or there. We call this a dummy subject. |
Object pronouns
We use object pronouns:
• as the object of the verb:
Can you help me please?
I can see you.
She doesn’t like him.
I saw her in town today.
We saw them in town yesterday, but they didn’t see us.
• after prepositions:
She is waiting for me.
I’ll get it for you.
Give it to him.
Why are you looking at her?
Don’t take it from us.
I’ll speak to them.
Comments
You could go to a doctor. They might help you.
or
You could go to a doctor. he might help you
Hello Amr alhefnawy,
As I said in my answer below, if we do not know the gender of the person then 'they' ('them', 'their' etc) is the best option. Here, the doctor could be a man or a woman and so we would say 'they'. If we were talking about a specific person then we would use 'he' or 'she', as appropriate:
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you very much for the helpful response.
Talk to a friend. Ask them to help you
or
Talk to a friend. Ask him to help you
Hello Amr alhefnawy,
The most common option is the first, with 'them'. You could also say '...ask him or her...' but it is rather clumsy in terms of style.
It is not incorrect to use 'him' (or 'her') here but we increasingly tend to avoid using gender-specific pronouns when we do not know the gender of the person, and this is why 'them' is the most likely choice here.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Is there an explanation of the rules in a video
Hello Zeinab Elsayed Mahmoud Ali,
There are a number of pages with videos which address the subject of pronouns. The best way to find them is to use the search facility. Just click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the page (on the right) and type in 'pronouns'. Then look for pages with videos in the results. For example, this video is all about personal pronouns.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi. I´m stard to learning inglish and I confused about use object pronouns.
Hi Mercy Brito,
Do you have an example of the kind of sentence you find difficult? We'll be happy to comment but we need some concrete example to do so.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
If you don't know the meaning of verb. Is it possible that we use words like shall or etc.
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