Personal Pronouns

By Nayla Schenka

SUBJECT PRONOUNS  

Pronomes pessoais do caso reto, em português, são chamados, em inglês, Subject Pronouns por exercerem a função de sujeito na frase. Posicionam-se antes do verbo e, muitas vezes, são usados para evitar o desgaste da repetição do sujeito, representado por substantivos.

Lembrem-se: subject = sujeito. 

Exemplo: Mrs. Smith is our teacher. She is really nice. Mrs. Smith é o sujeito da primeira frase; 'She' é sujeito da segunda frase: 'she' refere-se à 'Mrs. Smith'.

Eis todos os subject pronouns (pronomes pessoais do caso reto):

Singular:
I (eu), you (você), he (ele), she (ela), it (ele/ela  neutro)
Plural:
We (nós), you (vós), they  (eles/elas)

Observações:

1. O pronome you pode significar você ou vocês; os pronomes tu e vós não são usados em inglês;
2. No singular, he e she são usados somente para pessoas . Podem se referir também a animais, mas quando podemos identificar o sexo ou aqueles que são animais de estimação;

3. It é usado no singular para animais em geral, objetos, lugares;

4. No plural, they é usado para pessoas, animais, objetos, coisas, lugares. Serve para o feminino ou  masculino.  

OBJECT PRONOUNS 

São os pronomes pessoais do caso oblíquo.
Podem ser objeto direto ou indireto. Complementam o verbo e podem aparecer depois de preposição. Também evitam a repetição de substantivos que exercem a função de objeto nas frases.

Exemplo: Mary called Peter yesterday. She called him to say hello. Mary é sujeito na primeira frase, representado por 'she', na segunda; Peter é objeto na primeira frase, representado por 'him', na segunda.

Vejam todos os pronomes pessoais do caso oblíquo (object pronouns)

Singular:

me (mim, me), you (você, te), him (ele, o, lhe), her (ela, a, lhe), it (ele, ela, o, a, lhe)

Plural 

us (nos, conosco), you (te, vocês), them (lhes, os, as, eles, elas)

Observações: 

As traduções podem variar bastante, em português, em virtude da colocação dos pronomes nas frases: antes/no meio/depois do verbo e depois de preposição.

Exemplo: I sent him a letter (Eu enviei uma carta para ele; Eu lhe enviei uma carta). She respects me (Ela me respeita, Ela respeita a mim)

Agora, pratique um pouco:

Study a bit more and Test yourself

Quiz: Subject and Object Pronouns 

A special quiz 

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Now, let's focus on advanced studies

Personal pronouns take the place of specific nouns (the names of people, places or things). Basically, they are used instead of a specific name to avoid repetition and to help ease the flow of sentences. We usually inject personal pronouns into a sentence when the name of the noun has been previously mentioned, so hat the reader will know what is being referred to. 

For example: Richard bought a new laptop three months ago. He absolutely loves it.

In the second sentence, there are two personal pronouns. The personal pronoun "he" takes the place of "Richard" while the personal pronoun "it" takes the place of "laptop."

In this article, we provide a list of personal pronouns, as well as examples of their various uses.

List of Personal Pronouns

There are two types of personal pronouns: subject and object.

1) Subject Pronouns - I, You, He, She, It, They, We. Subject pronouns replace the name of the subject in the sentence. 

Example: Mrs.Yen did not come to school yesterday. She had to go to the doctor. "Mrs. Yen" is the subject and "she" is the subject pronoun.

2) Object Pronouns - Me, You, Him, Her, It, Us, Them.Object pronouns take the place of the object in the sentence (the noun that receives the action in a sentence). 

Example: After Colleen bought a bike, it got stolen within a week,;"it" is the object pronoun used to replace "bike."

More About Personal Pronouns

As mentioned above, personal pronouns help us to avoid constantly repeating the same noun over and over. The noun that is replaced is called the antecedent. Paying close attention to the antecedent will help you choose the correct personal pronoun.

Example: President Obama delivered a speech on health care reform. He spoke for more than an hour. "President Obama" is the antecedent to the personal pronoun "he."

To avoid confusion in sentences, it is important to choose the right personal pronoun that agrees in number (singular or plural), person (first, second, or third person), gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), and case (subject, object, possessive)

I or Me?

Another source of headache is the use of the subject pronoun "I" and the object pronoun "me."

Example: Jennifer and I are meeting in San Francisco in July. Why not Jennifer and me? Because "I" is part of the subject of the sentence.

Example: They gave the promotion to me. Why not I? Because "me" is the object of the sentence.

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often (but not always) found at the beginning of a sentence. More precisely, the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that lives out the verb.

• I owe that bookie $3,000. – I am living out that debt. I is the subject pronoun.
• He and I had a fight. – This sentence has two subjects because he and I were both involved in the fight.
• He broke my kneecaps. – You get the idea.
• To him, I must now pay my children's college funds. – If you'll notice, the verb in this sentence – the action – is "pay." Although I is not at the beginning of the sentence, it is the person living out the action and is, therefore, the subject.

Object Pronouns
By contrast, objects and object pronouns indicate the recipient of an action or motion. They come after verbs and prepositions (to, with, for, at, on, beside, under, around, etc.).

• The bookie showed me a crowbar and told me to pay him immediately.
• I begged him for more time.
• He said he'd given me enough time already.
• I tried to dodge the crowbar, but he hit me with it anyway.
• Just then, the police arrived and arrested us.

Subject vs. Object

There is often confusion over which pronouns you should use when you are one half of a dual subject or object. For example, should you say, "Me and him had a fight," or, "He and I had a fight?" Should you say, "The police arrested me and him," or, "The police arrested he and I?" Some people will tell you that you should always put the other person first and refer to yourself as "I" because it's more proper, but those people are wrong. You can put the other person first out of politeness, but you should always use the correct pronouns (subject or object) for the sentence. A good test to decide which one you need is to try the sentence with one pronoun at a time. Would you say, "Me had a fight?" Of course not. You'd say, "I had a fight." What about, "Him had a fight?" No, you'd say, "He had a fight." So when you put the two subjects together, you get, "He and I had a fight." The same rule applies to the other example. You wouldn't say, "The police arrested he," or, "The police arrested I." You would use "him" and "me" So the correct sentence is, "The police arrested him and me."

Additional Resources

• Take a personal pronoun quiz at ESLdesk.com and ESLPartyland.com.
• The University of Ottawa Writing Centre has a good overview of pronouns.
• BBC Skillswise has a load of personal pronoun activities (worksheets, games, quizzes).

source: http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar/subject-versus-object-pronouns.html 

That's all for now, folks!