PLURAL      Personal and Possessive Pronouns

"Pronouns" stand for (pro-) nouns; they take the place of nouns. Here are some plural forms.

PLURAL	PERSONAL PRONOUNS		POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
	Subjective Case 1	Objective Case 2	Possessive Case	As Adjectives 3
1st person	we	us	ours	our
2nd person	you	you	yours	your
3rd person	they	them	theirs	their

1. Also known as "Nominative Case". These forms are used for subjects of verbs (i.e., the person/thing doing the action).
   
   
2. The objective forms are used for objects of verbs (i.e., the person/thing receiving the action) or objects of prepositions.
   
   
3. When used with nouns e.g., my head, your hat, etc to show possession or ownership.
   
   

Examples - Plural
Using pronouns,     we would say: They are clowns. The circus hired them to entertain the audience. Their job is to make the audience laugh. The colorful costumes belong to them. The costumes are theirs.		The clowns     would say: We are clowns. The circus hired us to entertain the audience. Our job is to make the audience laugh. The colorful costumes belong to us. The costumes are ours.

Agreement with Antecedents

A pronoun refers to a noun and takes the place of that noun. Therefore, the pronoun must agree with that noun in

• number (i.e., singular or plural) and
  
  For example: The girl lost her way. She was crying.
  
  The pronoun "She" refers to the "girl". "She" is singular and agrees with the singular noun "girl".
  
  It would be confusing to readers if the sentences are written as:
  
  The girl lost her way. They were crying.
  
  Who are "They" in the second sentence? If the pronoun "They" refers to the "girl" then the sentence would be incorrect as "They" is plural while "girl" is singular.
  
  
• gender (i.e., masculine or feminine)
  
  For example: The girl lost her way. He was crying.
  
  Readers would be confused because the "girl" is feminine in gender while the pronoun "He" is masculine. The readers would be wondering. Who is "He"? Why was he crying?
  
  

Therefore, it is important that pronouns refer specifically to the nouns and be agreement in number and gender.

Singular Forms | Agreement with Antecedents Quiz

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