Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are used either to refer to the participants in a conversation (‘I/me’, ‘you’, ‘we/us’) or in place of nouns or names (e.g. ‘I can see her’ instead of ‘I can see María’). Despite being called personal pronouns, they can in the 3rd person refer also to animals, things or neuter concepts.

They exist for the following categories of use: as subject (e.g. English ‘she’ or ‘we’), as direct object (e.g. ‘her’ or ‘us’), as indirect object (e.g. ‘to her’ or ‘to us’) and after prepositions (e.g. ‘behind her’ or ‘behind us’). Pronouns may also be used reflexively (e.g. English ‘herself’ or ‘ourselves’).