Pronouns must agree with their antecedents (the nouns for which they are substituting) in number, gender, and person.
The following words are considered singular and require singular pronouns: anyone, everyone, everybody, anybody, many a, either.
The relative pronouns who, which, and that do not change to indicate number, so it is always necessary to refer back to their antecedents to make the verbs and other pronouns agree with the antecedents. In sentences containing more than one antecedent, care must be taken to assure that each pronoun agrees with the right antecedent.
If you are unsure which is correct: I or me, he or him, who or whom, learn how to use the five types of pronouns: subject, object, possessive, reflexive, and relative.
Learn the following table:
| Subject | Object | Possessive | Reflexive | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Me | My, mine | Myself | Who |
| You | You | Your, yours | Yourself | Which |
| He | Him | His | Himself | That |
| She | Her | Her, hers | Herself | |
| It | It | Its | Itself | |
| We | Us | Our, ours | Ourselves | |
| You | You | Your, yours | Yourselves | |
| They | Them | Their, theirs | Themselves | |
| Who | Whom | Whose |
When using a collective noun (team, orchestra, crowd), differentiate between referring to the group as a unit (singular) and referring to individuals in the group (plural).
To simplify the singular-plural problem when using collective nouns, use the word members when you intend that meaning.
He, she, and it (masculine, feminine, neuter) present fewer problems to students. Remember, however, language is still slanted towards the male animal, and when they write about the human race as a whole, they may rely on the masculine gender to signify the whole.
Man has a long history of conflict. His history is a chronicle of wars and conquests. From the time of the caveman, he has sought to conquer much more than he has sought to compromise.
Subject pronouns are used when pronouns are subjects of sentences or clauses or are in apposition to the subjects of sentences and clauses. There are three exceptions which will be discussed later.
It is obvious that the pronoun is part of the subject, so there should be no question that I is used rather than me.
We is the subject of the sentence, and students is in apposition to we. Try the sentence without the word students.
You can easily see that every who in the three above sentences is the subject of a sentence or a clause. Aside from the be, than and as exceptions to be discussed, all other sentence patterns call for whom.
In all of the above sentences the pronoun follows a form of the verb be. In all of the above sentences the meaning of the pronoun and the subject of the sentence is the same: it–I; I–it; it–she; she–it.
The rule, then, is when the pronoun follows a be verb and its antecedent is in the subjunctive case, the pronoun must also be in the subjunctive case.
This exception is essentially the same as the be exception. Who, in each of the above examples, is not the subject of the sentence or the clause, but it is written in the subjective case. The reason for this is that a be verb is used and that who and the subject are the same person or thing: in the first sentence who–he; in the second sentence who–Sammy; and in the third sentence who–friends.
A strange rule of grammar requires the use of subject pronouns following than and as in comparisons such as those above. The reasoning is that the verb is understood.
The possessive pronoun is used only to show possession, and it creates few, if any, problems.
Once you are sure about when to use subject pronouns (bearing in mind the three exceptions and possessive pronouns which cause no difficulty,) the rest is easy. All other sentence patterns require the use of object pronouns.
The reflexive pronoun is used when the subject does something to himself.
The reflexive pronoun is also used to emphasize.
Avoid overusing the reflexive pronoun. Theirselves and hisself are not standard English. Substitute themselves and himself.
Who, which, and that are the only relative pronouns and they are also used as subordinate conjunctions.
Relative pronouns do not change to indicate number, so it is always necessary to refer back to their antecedents to make the verbs and other pronouns agree with the antecedents. In sentences containing more than one antecedent, care must be taken to assure that each pronoun agrees with the right antecedent.