personal pronoun

American  

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

noun

Grammar.

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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Etymology

Origin of personal pronoun

First recorded in 1660–70

Example Sentences

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

From BBC • Jun. 6, 2023

Much of that conversation has centered on language: Unlike English, German has no equivalent to “they/them” for a personal pronoun, and most nouns referring to people are gendered as male or female.

From New York Times • Nov. 30, 2022

You would simply say that the pizza was delivered to me, not to I. Remember that an object personal pronoun stays an object personal pronoun no matter how many other objects are part of it.

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

The company’s word of the year for 2019 was “they,” when a shifting use of the personal pronoun was a hot subject and lookups increased by 313% in 2019 over the previous year.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 30, 2020

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