| Subject Form | ||
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person. | I | We |
| Second person. | You | You |
| Third person. | He, she, it. | They |
| Compound Personal Pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| First. | Myself | Ourselves |
| Second. | Yourself | Yourselves |
| Third. | Himself, herself, itself. | Themselves |
210. Remember that the first person refers to the person speaking, the second to the person spoken to, and the third person to the person or things spoken of. When we speak of things, we never use the first or second person, unless we are speaking of them in a personified form. So in the third person singular, we have the pronoun it which refers to one thing. In the plural, we have no special pronoun referring to things, but the pronoun they is used to refer both to persons and things.
Exercise 2
Which of the following pronouns refer to the person speaking, which to the person spoken to, and which to the person or thing spoken of? Which are singular, which plural?
- I will defend my principles.
- Give them to me for they are mine.
- Do you believe him to be your friend?
- We saw their mistake at once.
- They acknowledged it was their fault.
- Success will be your portion if you persevere.
- He struggles for his rights; she does not understand her rights.
- It forces us to struggle for our education.
- Woman craves her freedom.
- Workers of the world, unite; you have a world to gain and nothing to lose but your chains.
Form sentences of your own containing all these pronouns.
POSSESSIVE FORM
211. You will note in these sentences above that we have used the pronoun my and your and his and her as my principles, your friend, his rights, her freedom. This is the possessive form of these personal pronouns, the form that denotes ownership or possession. You remember that nouns had a possessive form, a form to denote possession or ownership, as, The man's book. The boy's school. The worker's college. So pronouns also have a possessive form which we use to show that an object belongs to such and such a person or thing. If I want to tell you that I own or possess a home, I say, I own my home. Each personal pronoun has its possessive form, thus: