Some of the oldest words in English are the pronouns.
Because they are so old, pronouns have certain old-fashioned features that require more attention than some of the other parts of speech.
Look at the forms of the personal pronouns.
Subject forms: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
Object forms: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them
Possessive forms:
Possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs
Possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their
NOTE: Although often referred to as “pronouns,” these words function as adjectives. They do not stand for nouns, but stand in front of nouns to indicate possession.
Closely related to the personal pronouns are the reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
You will note that you, your, it, his, and her appear in more than one list. That means they can be used in more than one position in a sentence. The other pronoun forms, however, cannot swap functions.
Function: the grammatical role that a word plays in a sentence.
Errors arise with the use of pronouns when the speaker does not pay attention to the pronoun’s function in a sentence.
Possible functions for a personal pronoun
subject of a verb: I live in New York. Sally and I often go to plays.
object of a verb: Give me the book. Jack kissed her.
object of a preposition: Where’s the book? You’re sitting on it.
Function of possessive adjectives
to point out the possessed noun: Is this your book? The dog is wagging its tail.
Possible functions for a pronoun that ends in -self or -selves
object of a verb: I cut myself while shaving.
object of a preposition: Charlie often talks to himself. The children play nicely among themselves.
emphasis: Sam and Joan painted the house themselves. I myself will decide!
NOTE: Even pronouns have undergone changes since the earliest form of English was spoken. For example, standard English has dropped the singular forms thou/thee/thy and the plural form ye. The possessive adjective its came into the language as late as the end of the 16th century. (Before its, his was used as the possessive form of it.)
The relentless frequency with which the non-standard use of pronouns is transmitted through the media may lead to the eventual acceptance of what are now glaring errors of usage.
For the present, however, such constructions as Jack and myself are driving to California and Me and my friends go bowling every Thursday are offensive lapses of grammar.
Unless your purpose is to show deliberate disrespect for conventional usage, you’ll want to take pains to avoid these pronoun errors.
