GRAMMAR
Pronouns
Contents
Besides verbs, pronouns are the part of speech that causes the most grammatical errors. Most pronoun errors involve agreement, reference or case.
Agr: A pronoun must agree in number with the word(s) to which it refers.
WRONG: I talked to the counselor about my problem, and they gave me good advice.
Most errors of pronoun agreement involve indefinite pronouns that are singular. The list below is incomplete:
Singular indefinite pronouns
any
anyone
each
every
every
everyone
neither
no one
none
one
someone
whoever
The most common errors involve the use of one pronoun to refer to another:
WRONG: Each girl wore their hair the same. “Each” is singular and “their” is plural.
RIGHT: Each girl wore her hair the same.
RIGHT: All girls wore their hair the same. “All” and “their” are plural.
Three handy patterns solve many problems with indefinite pronouns:
WRONG: As long as one keeps up with the homework, they can pass.
RIGHT (plural): As long as students keep up with the homework, they can pass.
RIGHT (“who”): Any student who keeps up with the homework can pass.
RIGHT (plural indefinite pronoun): All students who keep up with the homework can pass.
It is possible to make an error of agreement that does not involve a pronoun:
WRONG: You will meet many people in college who will become your friend.
RIGHT: You will meet many people in college who will become your friends.
Ref: Each pronoun must refer to one clearly specified thing.
Vague pronoun reference is usually distracting, sometimes ambiguous, and occasionally embarrassing.
Ambiguous: After Bill spoke with Jim, they agreed to lend me his car.
Ambiguous: He worked at the only store in the town, which isn’t there anymore.
Embarrassing: Doctors took x-rays to look for an injury to my brain, but they couldn’t find one.
Vague reference usually involves three groups of pronouns:
1. Vague demonstrative pronouns: “this,” “that,” “these” and “those.” Either substitute a clear noun phrase or rephrase the sentence. Do not merely add a noun after “this.”
Here is a sentence from a student’s college essay:
VAGUE: I kept practicing tennis despite my sore wrist. This has helped me in my studies.
What has helped? The sore wrist? Practicing tennis?
STILL VAGUE: This trait has helped me in my studies.
Neither a sore wrist nor tennis practice is a trait.
CLEAR: The perseverance I learned in sports has helped me in my studies.
Even if the general idea is apparent, precise rephrasing can helpfully sum up the thought:
VAGUE: Odysseus taunts the Cyclops, who angrily hurls a boulder at the ship. This teaches him the danger of pride.
STILL WEAK: This taunting teaches him the danger of pride.
CLEAR: His brush with disaster teaches him the danger of pride.
The same rules apply to “these” and (when they are used demonstratively) to “those” and “that.”
VAGUE: That is a good idea.
VAGUE: Those are good ideas.
GRAMMAR TIP: Demonstrative Pronouns
The word “this” is called a “demonstrative pronoun” because it demonstrates or points out instead of defining. Demonstrative pronouns are useful in speech, for it is simpler to say “Mail this” than “Mail the envelope addressed to the Internal Revenue Service.” However, demonstrative pronouns are often vague, especially in writing, the purpose of which is to communicate with people who are not present. “These” and “those” are sometimes demonstrative, but they can serve other functions.
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2. “Which” used as a vague connective between ideas. Supply a clear noun phrase, or rephrase the sentence.
Careful writers make sure that the pronoun “which” refers to a specific noun or noun phrase. There are two ways to correct misuse of “which.” One is to supply a noun or noun phrase (in the example below, “His recklessness”) to which the pronoun refers:
WRONG: He drove too fast, which frightened me and made me stop riding with him.
RIGHT: His recklessness, which frightened me, made me stop riding with him.
The second way to correct the error is by restructuring the sentence to eliminate “which”:
WRONG: Huck Finn often doubts what people say, which indicates his intelligence.
RIGHT: Huck’s critical questioning of things people say indicates his intelligence.
What is wrong with the following two sentences? How could you correct them?
My brother always complains about the food Mom cooks, which I hate.
Only one passenger died, which was sad.
3. Vague “it.” Supply a clear noun phrase, or rephrase the sentence.
In the sentence below, each “it” refers to something different:
WRONG: It made me feel guilty that I would hide something from them, but it didn’t matter as long as I didn’t have to talk about it.
Supply a clear noun phrase to which the “it” refers, or rephrase the sentence to get rid of the “it”:
VAGUE: I arrived after the concert had sold out, but it did not break my heart.
BETTER (clear noun phrase): Arriving too late for the concert did not break my heart.
BETTER (rephrased): When I arrived after the concert had sold out, my heart did not break.
h/s: Reference to gender.
Three errors are common. Identify which one you committed:
1. Avoid saying “he,” “him” or “his” when you mean a person of either sex.
2. Avoid awkward solutions like “he or she.”
Two solutions work in most situations:
PROBLEM: If a person fails, we should not mock him.
SOLUTION 1 (plural): If people fail, we should not mock them.
SOLUTION 2 (“who”): We should not mock a person who fails.
Solutions like “he or she” or “him or her” are distracting, “s/he” is unpronounceable, and “one” causes clumsy repetition due to its lack of a plural form: “One trims one’s nails.”
3. Use gender-neutral nouns where possible.
Gender-biased:
policeman
mankind
stewardess
Gender-neutral:
police officer
people
flight attendant
USAGE TIP: Alumnus, Alumna or Alumni?
Eh, Where You Wen’ Grad?
In a few years you may be helping to organize your class reunion. How will you refer to your classmates? Words we borrow from Latin have different endings:
alumnus: a male former student
alumni: either (1) male former students or (2) former students of both sexes
alumna: a female former student
alumnae: female former students
To avoid identifying sex, some schools use clumsy formulations like “alumnae/i,” “alumni and alumnae,” or “alums.” The least objectionable solution may be to use “graduates.” However, all the terms refer to people who once attended a school, whether or they graduated or not.
Sh or Pro sh: Avoid shifts of pronoun reference.
WRONG: After students write their first drafts, you will share them in small groups.
RIGHT: After writing first drafts, students will share them in small groups.
It is easy to make erroneous shifts when you are quoting:
WRONG: Lady Macbeth tells her husband to “Leave all the rest to me” (1.5.74).
RIGHT: Lady Macbeth tells her husband to “Leave all the rest” (1.5.74) to her.
RIGHT: Lady Macbeth gives her husband reassurance: “Leave all the rest to me” (1.5.74).
RIGHT: Lady Macbeth tells her husband, “Leave all the rest to me” (1.5.74).
PC: Use the correct pronoun case.
Case is the form a pronoun takes according to its function:
Subject of a verb (“I,” “she,” “they”)
Object of a verb or preposition (“me,” “her,” “them”)
Possessive (“my,” “her,” “their”)
Most errors of case fall into one of the following five categories.
PCC: Comparisons with “as” or “than.”
If you do not know whether to write “as much as I” or “as much as me,” just ask yourself which you mean:
She does not like John as much as I [do]. (subjective case: subject of verb)
She does not like John as much as [she likes] me. (objective case: object of verb)
You can solve problems with the word “than” in the same way:
I can run faster than he [can]. (subjective case: subject of verb)
She likes John less than [she likes] me. (objective case: object of verb)
Often it is better to add a verb to avoid ambiguity:
Ambiguous: I like John more than her.
Clear: I like John more than I like her.
Or simply to avoid putting a distracting thought in your reader’s mind:
Distracting: She thinks chimpanzees are smarter than . . . I? me?
PCL: Use the subjective case after linking (“to be”) verbs.
Linking verbs like “is,” “are,” “was” and “were” must be followed by pronouns such as “he,” “she” and “they,” not by “me,” “her” and “them”:
WRONG: I am her.
RIGHT: I am she.
RIGHT: I like her. (“like” is an action verb)
Although errors like “This is me” sound natural on the telephone and in casual conversation, most writing situations require proper usage.
GRAMMAR TIP: Linking Verbs
Unlike action verbs, which take objects (“I drink milk”), linking verbs like “to be” and “to become” take complements: words or phrases which complete a statement by identifying the subject with an adjective (“I am happy”) or a noun (“I am a citizen”). Some words can be either action verbs or linking verbs:
Action verb
I felt the cold wind.
The farmer grew rice.
He looked at her.
Linking verb
I felt cold.
He grew old and weary.
She looked beautiful.
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PCA: Use the correct case with “and” (in compound constructions).
WRONG: Him and I went on a double date with she and you.
RIGHT: He and I went on a double date with her and you.
Trying to sound refined, some people erroneously say “between you and he” or “tell Mary and I.” If you have any doubt what to write (“he” or “him”? “I” or “me”?), you can usually tell easily by taking one step: ask yourself how the sentence would sound if you repeated the verb or preposition:
PROBLEM: She likes him and [she likes] I? me?
SOLUTION: She likes him and me.
PROBLEM: He? Him? [goes] and I go.
SOLUTION: He and I go.
PROBLEM: They go with her and [with] I? me?
SOLUTION: They go with her and me.
Wh: “who” and “whom.”
Usually “who” goes before a verb, and “whom” goes before a noun or pronoun and after a preposition. If your teacher marks “Wh” on your paper, identify which error you made:
1. Wrong case. Look at your sentence and identify which situation applies:
Subject of the verb “loves”: She is the one who loves me.
Subject of the verb “loves”: Who loves me?
Object of the verb “love”: She is the one whom I love.
Object of the verb “love”: Whom do I love?
Object of the preposition “to”: He is the one to whom I spoke.
Object of the preposition “to”: To whom did I speak?
Complement of the linking verb “is”: I know who it is. It is she.
Complement of linking verb “is”: Who can it be? Can it be she?
GRAMMAR TIP: “Who” and “Whom”
“Who” and “whoever” are in the subjective case; they are subjects of verbs. “Whom” and “whomever” are in the objective case; they are objects. You can omit “whom” as long as the meaning remains clear:
RIGHT: She is the one whom I love.
RIGHT: She is the one I love.
RIGHT: He visited my doctor, whom I had recommended.
WRONG: He visited my doctor, I had recommended.
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2. Hanging preposition. The use of “whom” (whether sometimes requires relocating prepositions to keep them from hanging at the end of sentences and clauses:
AWKWARD (hanging preposition): Pip learns whom he should be grateful to.
WRONG (double preposition): Pip learns to whom he should be grateful to.
RIGHT: Pip learns to whom he should be grateful.
Double prepositions are grammatically incorrect. Hanging prepositions are not, and they are hard to avoid in the haste of everyday speech. Many writers avoid them on the grounds of style, because they make sentences end weakly. They sound least objectionable when they are parts of phrasal verbs like “run into” or “look up to.”
We chose her captain because she is the one we all look up to.
Even then, however, it is usually not hard to avoid the hanging preposition:
We chose her captain because we all look up to her.
We chose her captain because she is the one we all admire.
3. Pronouns in two clauses at once. If a pronoun is a subject in one clause and an object in another, its case is determined by the words after the pronoun (that is, by the subordinate clause):
WRONG: He can’t escape from whom he is.
RIGHT: He can’t escape from who he is.
4. Interrupted constructions. If an interrupting clause like “I think (that),” “he said (that),” or “people believe (that)” immediately follows a pronoun, it does not affect the case:
Interrupted: He is the man who police think robbed the bank.
Police think he robbed the bank; “who” is the subject of “robbed.”
Uninterrupted: He is the man whom the police suspect.
The police suspect the man; “whom” is the object of “suspect.”
Ger: Use possessive case with gerunds.
Errors occur in possessive constructions when a gerund (a verb ending in “-ing” that acts as a noun) follows a noun or pronoun. In the examples below, “singing” and “whining” are gerunds.
WRONG: I enjoy my brother singing.
RIGHT: I enjoy my brother’s singing.
WRONG: I can’t stand him whining.
RIGHT: I can’t stand his whining.
It is sometimes hard to tell whether “me driving” or “my driving” is correct:
RIGHT (participle): Voters disapprove of the Senator accepting gifts.
RIGHT (gerund): Voters disapprove of the Senator’s accepting gifts.
Do they disapprove of the Senator, or only of his actions? Often it is best to rephrase for clarity:
CLEAR: Voters believe the Senator should not accept gifts.
Int/Ref: intensive and reflexive pronouns.
Use “-self” pronouns pronouns correctly.
Two errors are common:
1. Never use a reflexive pronoun as the subject of a verb.
WRONG: She and myself are partners.
RIGHT: She and I are partners.
2. Never use a reflexive pronoun as the object of a different subject.
WRONG: She phoned himself and me.
RIGHT: She phoned him and me.
GRAMMAR TIP: Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns
Reflexive and intensive pronouns are words like “myself,” “himself,” “herself,” “itself,” “ourselves” and “themselves.” As reflexive pronouns, they avoid repetition when a subject and object in a sentence are the same:
REFLEXIVE: Exhausted, he took himself out of the game. I was only lying to myself.
As intensive pronouns, they add emphasis to another pronoun or noun:
INTENSIVE: I made the decision myself, with no influence from anyone else.
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