G4 Pronoun Case
A pronoun can take different forms or cases, depending on its role in a sentence.
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Subject or subject complement: I, we, you, he, she, it, they (subjective form)
- “You’d better be careful,” she said.
- It is we you owe the money to.
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Object of a verb or a preposition: me, us, you, him, her, it, them (objective form)
- Possession or ownership: mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs, my, our, your, her, its, their (possessive form)
- I trusted his driving.
- I finished putting my gear on and rolled over backward into the ocean.
subject complement A word or word group that follows a linking verb and describes or restates the subject.
See R2-a for more on pronouns.
preposition A word (such as between, in, or of) that indicates the relation between a word in a sentence and it object.
Replace a reflexive pronoun that does not refer to another noun or pronoun in the clause.
reflexive pronoun A pronoun such as myself or ourselves that refers to a noun or a personal pronoun in the same clause.
A reflexive pronoun does not belong in this sentence because myself does not refer to a preceding I.
Change a pronoun to the subjective form if it is part of a compound subject.
compound subject Two or more words acting as a subject, linked by and.
Change a pronoun to the objective form if it is an object (or part of a compound object) of a preposition or a verb.
compound object Two or more words acting as an object, linked by and.
Change a pronoun to the possessive form when it modifies a gerund.
gerund A verb form that is used as a noun and ends in -ing: arguing, throwing.
Change the form of a pronoun to fit the implied or understood wording of a comparison using than or as.
Test whether a pronoun form fits by filling in the implied wording.
| INCORRECT PRONOUN | I was still faster than her [was fast]. |
| CORRECT PRONOUN | I was still faster than she [was fast]. |
Use we to precede a subject, or us to precede an object.
We is the subjective form, and us is the objective form. Select the form that matches the role of the noun in the sentence.
Test your choice of pronoun by reading the sentence with the noun left out.
| INCORRECT PRONOUN | Whenever us would go out to play, I would always be goalie. |
| CORRECT PRONOUN | Whenever we would go out to play, I would always be goalie. |