Pronouns are words such as “him,” “her,” or “it” that take the place of nouns. Substituting these words for nouns (especially names) can help make your sentences less repetitive.
Awkward Example: Meghan rode Meghan’s bike into town because Meghan wanted to buy some ice cream.
This sentence is much clunkier than a sentence that uses pronouns effectively, such as the example below:
Correct Example: Meghan rode her bike into town because she wanted to buy some ice cream.
The word that the pronoun replaces (“Meghan” in the example above) is called the antecedent. Make sure that your pronoun is close to the antecedent; if another noun comes between the pronoun and its antecedent, the reader may be confused about which word the pronoun stands for.
There are three types of personal pronouns: subjective, objective, and possessive:
Subjective pronouns form the subjects of sentences.
First Person: I, we
Second Person: you
Third Person: he, she, it, they
Objective pronouns are objects of sentences, so they occur after the verbs or in prepositional phrases:
First Person: me, us
Second Person: you
Third Person: him, her, it, them
Possessive pronouns stand in for possessive nouns:
First Person: my, mine, our, ours
Second Person: your, yours,
Third Person: his, her, hers, its, their, theirs.