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Pronoun Case
By Alfred Taylor
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Pronoun Case
Students often believe that they must study until they drop to understand pronoun case; however, mastering pronoun case is not a difficult task as long as students remember a few simple rules. Pronoun case is never determined by how a sentence sounds orwhat a sentence looks like.
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Pronoun Case
Pronoun case is determined by the function of the pronoun in the sentence. If the pronoun is the subject of a sentence or a subject compliment, then it is in the subjective case. If the pronoun is the object of a sentence, an indirect object, or an object of a preposition, then it is in the objective case.
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Pronoun Case
Warning!Many of the examples in this presentation are going to appear to be wrong. They only seem wrong because pronoun case is one of the most misused aspects of English.
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Pronoun Case
A subject is the person or thing that does the action in a sentence.
An object is the person or thing that receives the action in a sentence.
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Pronoun Case
So, in the sentence, “Juan kissed Tao.” Juan is the subject because he is doing the action of kissing. Tao is the object because she is receiving the action of being kissed.
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Pronoun Case
A subject compliment is a word that describes or expands the subject and is connected by a linking verb. For example, “It was Juan who kissed Tao.” In this example, the subject of the sentence is “it.” Juan is the subject compliment because “Juan” is a word that describes the subject and is connected by a linking verb.
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Pronoun Case
A linking verb is a verb that does not express any action. All forms of the verb “to be” are linking verbs. Are, be, been, being, have been, is, was, were, will have been are all examples of linking verbs.
Linking verbs are explained in more detailin my power point on verbs.
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Pronoun Case
Prepositions are connecting words that show time, place, or condition in a sentence. Examples of prepositions are: above, across, after, at, before, behind, below, down, during, except, far, from, in, into, like, near, next, of, off, on, sincethrough, to, toward, under, upon, withwithin, without.
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Pronoun Case
The noun or pronoun following a preposition is the object of the preposition. For example, “Juan is studying at the computer.” In this case “at” is the preposition and “computer” is the object of the preposition.
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Pronoun Case
An indirect object describes for whom the action of the sentence was done.
Juan bought Kirsten a ring.Kirsten gave Juan a kiss.
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Pronoun Case
Subjective Case
I, He, She, It, We, You, They, Who, Whoever
ObjectiveCase
Me, Him, Her, It, Us, You, Them, Whom, Whomever
Possessive Case
My, His, Her, Its, Our, Your, Their, Hers, Whose, Mine, Ours, Yours, Theirs
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Pronoun Case
All of these pronouns are subjective because the noun they replace is the subject.
Juan kissed Tao. He kissed Tao.Bullies are mean. They are mean.Juan and Tao kissed. Juan and she kissed.
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Pronoun Case
All of these pronouns are objective because the nouns they replace are objects.
Juan kissed Tao. Juan kissed her.A bully grabbed Juan. A bully grabbed him.Juan talked to Tao and Kim. Juan talked to Tao and her.
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Pronoun Case
All of these pronouns are subjective because the nouns they replace are subject compliments.
It is Juan who carried the books.It is he who carried the books.The smart one has been Kirsten.The smart one has been she.
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Pronoun Case
All of these pronouns are objective because the nouns they replace are objects of prepositions.
For Kirsten, Juan bought a dog.For her, Juan bought a dog.Beside Juan, who else kissed Tao.Beside him, who else kissed Tao.
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Pronoun Case
All of these pronouns are objective because the nouns they replace are indirect objects.
Juan bought Kirsten a ring.Juan bought her a ring.Tao baked Juan cookies.Tao baked him cookies.
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Pronoun Case
The rules presented so far cover about 90% of their are two important exceptions to these rules:
Than or As clausesAppositives
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Pronoun Case
Than or As clauses make a comparisons between two different people or things. Which sentence below is correct?
Juan liked kissing Tao more than I.Juan liked kissing Tao more than me.
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Pronoun Case
They are both correct. The sentences are elliptical clauses. In other words, they are not single sentences, but two sentences joined together with some of the redundant words being removed. An example of an elliptical clause would be, “When I came to work today, I didn’t think I’d have to.” Have to what?The word “work” has been deleted fromthe sentence because it is not needed.
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Pronoun Case
In the previous examples, each sentence has a different part missing.
Juan likes kissing Tao more than I like kissing Tao.Juan likes kissing Tao more than Juan likes kissing me.
With a than or as clause the case of the pronoun is determined by what is missing in the sentence.
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Pronoun Case
Another example would be, “I didn’t like reading The Write Way to Get a Girlfriend as much as she .” Even thought the pronoun falls in what would normally be the object spot of the sentence, it is subjective because it is actually the subject of the truncated sentence “I didn’t like reading The Write Way to Get a Girlfriend as much as she liked reading it.”
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Pronoun Case
Appositives are another special case. An appositive is a word or phrase that renames a noun in the sentence and explains or clarifies it. The noun can be a subject or an object, but the case of the pronoun in the appositive must agree with the case of the noun it is referencing.
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Pronoun Case
An example of an appositive would be, “Juan, a nice guy, failed English.” The phrase “a nice guy” is an appositive renaming or describing the subject Juan. There are two types of appositives: essential and non-essential. This presentation will only refer to non-essential appositives.
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Pronoun Case
In this example, the appositive refers to the subject of the sentence, so the pronoun replacement must be subjective.
Two students, Juan and Kirsten, were caught kissing in the hallway. Two students, Juan and she, were caught kissing in the hallway.
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Pronoun Case
In this example, the appositive refers to the object of the sentence, so the pronoun replacement must be objective.
He caught two students, Juan and Tao, kissing.He caught two students, Juan and she, kissing.
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Pronoun Case
The possessive case is used to show ownership of and usually does not create many grammatical issues for a writer.
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Pronoun Case
If you have enjoyed this presentation, please consider purchasing The Write Way to Get a Girlfriend. Through Juan’s adventures with Kirsten the novel explains how to write a college level essay and deal with many of life’s issues.
The End
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