GUIDE ENGLISH GRAMMAR BOOK

22 PRONOUNS PAGE 234
184 Personal pronouns
In this real conversation, Avril, Lucy and Sarah are talking about Lucy's brother.
WHAT DOES MATTHEW LOOK LIKE?
Avril: If we said to you now, 'What does Matthew look like?' you probably
wouldn't be able to give as good a description as we could.
Lucy: Oh yes, I could.
Avril: All right then. What does he look like?
Lucy: No, you describe him to me and I'll tell you if you're right.
Avril: Well, he's quite tall, over six foot. And he's thin.
Lucy: Well, yes, I suppose so.
Avril: Well, in proportion with his height, and he's got fairly short black hair,...
Lucy: Not very short.
Avril: Well, perhaps it's grown since I saw him.
Lucy: It's short as opposed to long.
Avril: I couldn't tell you what colour his eyes were.
(from M. Underwood Have you heard?)
1 Introduction
a
'Personal pronouns' do not always refer to people. 'Personal' means first person
(the speaker), second person (the person spoken to) and third person (another
person or thing). These are the forms.
Singular
Plural
First person
Subject
I
Object
me
Subject
we
Object
us
Second person you you you you
Third person he him they them
she her
it it
NOTE
a The pronoun I is always a capital letter,
b You is the only second-person form.
You're quite right, Avril. You're late, all of you.
c For weak forms of pronouns, • 55(1b).
We use the subject form when the pronoun is the subject.
I couldn't tell you. Well, he's quite tall.
We use the object form when the pronoun is not the subject.
You describe him to me.
We also use the object form when the pronoun is on its own. Compare:
Who invited Matthew? ~ I did. Who invited Matthew? ~ Me.
NOTE
We sometimes use a subject pronoun as complement.
The young man looked rather like Matthew, but it wasn't him/he.
Who's that? ~ It's me./It is I.
Sarah knows all about it. It was her/she who told me.
The subject pronoun in this position is old-fashioned and often formal. The object pronoun
is normal, especially in informal speech. For pronouns after as and than, • 221(5).