personal pronoun

American  

[pur-suh-nl proh-naun] / ˈpɜr sə nl ˈproʊˌnaʊn /

noun

Grammar.

• personal pronouns
  plural

1. any one of the pronouns used to refer to the speaker, or to those to or about whom the speaker is speaking, as, in English, I, me, we, us, you, he, she, it, they, him, her, them.

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personal pronoun British  

noun

1. a pronoun having a definite person or thing as an antecedent and functioning grammatically in the same way as the noun that it replaces. In English, the personal pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, we, and they, and are inflected for case

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personal pronoun Cultural  

1. A pronoun that represents a person in a sentence. Personal pronouns have different forms depending on their case, gender, and number, as follows:

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• personal pronouns
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of personal pronoun

First recorded in 1660–70

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

personal pronoun

The speaker, so far, has worked out only the general implications of the opening phrase, applying it to “us,” but never using the personal pronoun “I.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Megumi, who uses they as a personal pronoun, knew the man who did it, and where to find him.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2023

The situation provoked “constant anxiety,” said the doctor, who often uses they as a personal pronoun, as do many other nonbinary people.

From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2021

Admonished by his mother to put others first, he rarely used the personal pronoun “I,” a quirk exploited by comedian Dana Carvey in his “Saturday Night Live” impressions of the president.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 30, 2018

You may attempt to defend your enervating use of the passive voice by pointing out that the only alternative is excessive reliance upon the first person personal pronoun or upon the pontifical We.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

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