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What Are Objective Personal Pronouns?

What Are Objective Personal Pronouns? (with Examples)

What Are Objective Personal Pronouns? 

The objective personal pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, and whom.

Objective personal pronouns are used when they are:

Objective personal pronouns are personal pronouns in the objective case. The objective case contrasts with the subjective case, which is used to show the subject of a verb. For example:

  • They know him.

(They is the subjective case. Him is the objective case.)

  • He knows them.

(He is the subjective case. Them is the objective case.)

Examples of Objective Personal Pronouns As Direct Objects

Here are some examples of objective personal pronouns as direct objects:

  • Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them.
  • To obtain a man’s opinion of you, make him mad. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894)

(In this example, you is also an objective personal pronoun. It’s an object of preposition. See below.)

  • I’m a godmother. That’s a great thing to be, a godmother. She calls me God for short. That’s cute. I taught her that. (Ellen DeGeneres)

(In this example, her is also an objective personal pronoun. It’s an indirect object. See below.)

Read more about the direct object.

Examples of Objective Personal Pronouns As Indirect Objects

Here are some examples of objective personal pronouns as indirect objects:

  • Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money. (Arthur Miller, 1915-2005)
  • The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. (Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784)
  • I’m a godmother. That’s a great thing to be, a godmother. She calls me God for short. That’s cute. I taught her that. (Ellen DeGeneres)

(In this example, me is also an objective personal pronoun. It’s a direct object. See above.)

Read more about the indirect object.

Examples of Objective Personal Pronouns As the Objects of Prepositions

Here are some examples of objective personal pronouns as the objects of prepositions (prepositions in bold):

  • All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. (Sean O’Casey, 1880-1964)
  • To obtain a man’s opinion of you, make him mad. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894)

(In this example, him is also an objective personal pronoun. It’s a direct object. See above.)

  • Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. (Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865)

Read more about the object of a preposition.

Read more about prepositions.

Not All the Pronouns Change Their Forms

Objects (i.e., direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions) are always in the objective case. In English, this only affects pronouns (but not all pronouns). Here is a table:

Subjective Pronoun Objective Pronoun Comment
I me  
you you No change
he him  
she her  
it it No change
we us  
they them  
who whom More on who & whom

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AGH / Feb 2020