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*Pronoun USE AND REFERENCE who, what, why, where, when and how!
A pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun. Pronouns can be used as subject, objects or possessives.
RULE 1. To decide
which pronoun form to use in a compound subject, try each part
of the subject by itself with the verb.
Brian and (I, me) went to the movies. (Brian went; I went, not
me went)
The O'Briens and (they, them) are in the Club. (The O'Briens
are; they are, not them are)
The plural forms of we and they sound awkward in many places, so it is often best to rewrite the sentence.
We and they planned to swim in the lake.
We all planned to swim in the lake.
The boys and we are all going there.
We and the boys are going there.
RULE 2. To decide which pronoun form to use in a compound object, try each part of the object by itself with the verb.
The teacher wanted to see Mary and (I, me). (See Mary; see Me-not I)
Did you ask (he, him) and (I, me) to dinner? (ask him; ask me)
RULE 3. A personal pronoun must be in the same person as its antecedent.
This is one of the most common errors
encountered in papers.
The court decided the prisoner's fate when they
reached their decision.
RULE 4.Collective nouns such as
"court," "board," "union," "jury" are referred to as "it."
The court decided the prisoner's fate when it
reached its decision.
(NOTE: the only use for it's is to mean "it is." It is a
possessive pronoun. No possessive pronouns need apostrophes.
(Mine, ours, his hers, theirs, yours.) If you are unsure about
its use-do not ever use its.)
RULE 5. To avoid ambiguity, every personal pronoun should refer clearly to its antecedent.
Indefinite: The yearbook is good, but they did not include enough pictures.
The yearbook is good, but the editors did not include enough pictures.
Indefinite: Read what they say about the product.
Read what Consumer Reports says about the product.
Ambiguous: Vince told Joe that he had won the lottery.
Vince had won the prize, he told Joe.
