Subject pronouns

The subject of a sentence refers to the person or thing that performs the action of a verb. A subject pronoun is often used to replace this person or thing in subsequent sentences to avoid repetition.

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Here is a list of subject pronouns.

Singular   Plural
1st person I we
2nd person  you you
3rd person he
she
it
they

In English, unlike some languages, you cannot form a sentence without a subject or a subject pronoun. Here are examples with subjects.

Correct   Incorrect
subject verb    
Tom is strong. Is strong.
Hate destroys.   Destroys.
People live here. Live here.

Here are examples with subject pronouns.

subject
pronoun
verb      
I love you. Love you.
It sounds beautiful. Sounds beautiful.
They are crazy. Are crazy.

Note that without a subject or a subject pronoun, it is impossible to know who or what is performing the action of the verb. Here are some examples with questions.

Correct   Incorrect
verb subjet    
Are they here? Are here?
Am I your friend? Am your friend?

In English, the subject pronoun I is always capitalized, even if it doesn’t start the sentence.

Correct   Incorrect
The book I bought is new. The book i bought is new.
What was I saying? What was i saying?

Most English nouns do not have gender. When talking about an object, the subject pronoun it is used.

Correct   Incorrect
Look at the flower. It is beautiful. Look at the flower. She is beautiful.
I lost a book. It has a red cover. I lost a book. He has a red cover.

He and she are only used when referring to people and sometimes animals, if we know the gender of the animal.

This is my dog Napoleon. He is four years old.
My cat is pregnant. She is going to have kittens.

They is used to refer to more than one person or thing.

Tom and Sue are my friends. They live next door.
I like his jokes. They are funny.

Remember, subject pronouns are used to avoid repetion. Note below that the second example sounds better than the first.

Tom and Sue are my friends. Tom and Sue live next door and Tom and Sue have two children.
Tom and Sue are my friends. They live next door and they have two children.

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