First-Person Pronouns

Pronouns

We use pronouns every day without thinking about them. They are a class of words used to replace a noun when it is obvious who or what the noun is. They are so common that we don't even notice them most of the time. In fact, I've used five so far in this paragraph: 'we,' 'they,' 'they,' 'we,' and 'them.'

But when do we use pronouns? Why 'we' instead of 'them'? Why 'I' instead of 'he' or 'me.' This is because pronouns fall into different classes based on who they are referring to and where they appear in a sentence. One of these classes is first-person pronouns.

First-Person

The person of the pronoun refers to who the speaker or writer is referring to. First-person pronouns are used when the speaker is referring to him or herself. In other words, there is only one person involved: the speaker.

This contrasts with second-person pronouns, which refer to the person the speaker is talking to (like 'you') and third-person, which refers to someone other than the speaker or listener ('he,' 'she,' 'it').

So, first-person pronouns are used when there is only one person involved: the speaker. But there are still a bunch of different options for first-person pronouns: 'I,' 'me,' 'we,' 'us,' 'my,' 'mine,' 'our' and 'ours.' So, we need to divide this group up a little more.

Number

The first subdivision of first-person pronouns is in number. 'I,' 'me,' 'my' and 'mine' are used when the speaker is only referring to him or herself and no one else is around, such as:

• I walked to school today by myself.
• Mom gave me $10 for lunch.

'We,' 'us,' 'ours' and 'our' are used when the speaker is part of a group of people, such as:

• We finished our group project in the library.
• Mom gave us each $10 for lunch.

Possession

The pronouns 'mine' and 'our' are a special class known as possessive pronouns. They are used by the speaker to show possession or ownership:

• That iPod is mine.
• My mom baked cookies.
• Our parents are out of town.
• The classroom is ours because the teacher left the room.

Subject and Object

So, you may be following along and understanding these divisions, but have you also noticed an odd pattern? There are two first-person singular pronouns and two first-person plural pronouns. Similarly, there are two different first-person singular possessive pronouns and two different first-person plural possessive pronouns.

This brings us to the last and trickiest division, between subject and object. 'I,' 'we,' 'my,' and 'our' are subjective pronouns, used when the speaker is doing the action in the sentence or the grammatical subject. 'Me,' 'us,' 'mine,' and 'ours,' conversely, are objective pronouns, used when the speaker is the grammatical object, having the action done to them.

So, the subjective pronouns are used in situations like this:

• I am going to Spain.
• We need to rush to make it to school.
• My teacher is Ms. Maple.
• Our school project is not going to be done in time.

In all of these examples, the speaker is doing the action. Compare with these examples:

• The teacher gave me an F.
• Miss Maple is going to fail all of us.
• That sweater you stole is mine.
• The red house on the left is ours.

In these, the speaker is the grammatical object, having the action done to it.