Hey, everyone, welcome to another English grammar lesson. Today we're going to be covering some pretty tricky pronouns.
some pretty tricky pronouns.
So what exactly is a pronoun? Well, a pronoun is one of the
eight parts of speech, and it’s a word that takes the place of a noun. Like, instead of
saying “Tom put on Tom’s shoes, and then Tom went downstairs, we could say "Tom put
on his shoes, and then he went downstairs." The words “his” and “he” take the
place of “Tom” so that we don't have to say his name a thousand times. Common pronouns
include words like “I,” “me,” “myself,” “he,” “she,” “him,” “her,”
“they,” “them,” “we,” and “it.” Of course, there are others, but these are
just some of the most common ones. So, when it comes to using the right pronouns in a
sentence, I've found that a lot of people actually don’t have a clue what they're
doing. For example, let's take a look at this sentence: "If you have any questions, please
call Joe or I,” “Joe or me,” or “Joe or myself.” Now, which one of these pronouns
do you think is correct? Most people that I've met would say "myself” because they
think it sounds, like, polite or professional or something. “If you have any questions,
please call Joe or myself.” Unfortunately, this is wrong. A lot of other people I know
would say "I"—for more or less the same reason: it sounds right. “Please call Joe
or I.” But as it turns out, that's also wrong. Think about it like this: If you take
Joe out of the sentence, what would be the correct way to say this? “If you have any
questions, please call me”—obviously. No one would say "please call I.” And no
one would say "please call myself." So, the trick in these types of sentences is to take
out the other people in the sentence and see what would make sense with just that pronoun
by itself. Let's keep that in mind as we look at this sentence: "Katie and I are dating,”
“Katie and me are dating,” or “Katie and myself are dating”? All right, so let’s
start by taking the other person out of the sentence. Obviously, you’d have to remove
the “and” too because there are no longer multiple people. And, because of that—because
we now only have one person—the word "are" would have to change to "am." Anyway, would
that make sense? “Me am dating”? “Myself am dating”? No. “I am dating.” So, altogether,
it would be “Katie and I are dating.” Next one: "Ken never passes the ball to Mason
or I,” “Ken never passes the ball to Mason or me,” or “Ken never passes the ball
to Mason or myself”? Now, don't just jump to what you think sounds good because what
sounds good to most people is wrong. Take Mason out of the sentence. And, obviously,
the word “or” goes with him. “Ken never passes the ball to… me.” Ken never passes
the ball to Mason. Ken never passes the ball to me. So, together, Ken never passes the
ball to Mason or me. Next one… And since there are so many options of pronouns here
I’m not going to read it. Anyway, we've got two little "problems" here to figure out.
So, let’s just do one at a time. If we take out the second part, so we're just looking
at the first part, we'd say "He is good at volleyball," right? And that's the correct
choice. And if we took out this part, so we're now just looking at the second part, we would
say "She is good at volleyball," and that's also correct. So, believe it or not, the correct
version of this sentence is "He and she are good at volleyball." He is good. She is good.
So, together, “he and she” are good. And, again, I do not care what you think sounds
good because what you think—no offense—is probably wrong. Let's do a couple more just
to make sure we’ve got it… So, look at the first part of this sentence. What would
you say? "She plays the piano," right? And now look at the second part. What would you
say here? "I play the piano." So, together, this sentence should say "She and I both play
the piano." And this rule applies to even the weirdest sounding sentences, like this
one… First part: “We are going to the park,” right? That’s what makes sense.
And the second part: “They are going to the park.” That’s what also makes sense.
So, yes, yes indeed, this sentence should say "We and they are going to the park." Now,
how often are you going to see sentences like this? Probably not that often—but the I/me/myself
situation comes up all the time. “Jeff and me and going skating”? No. “Jeff and I
are going skating.” “You can turn that it to Mr. Jones or myself”? No. “You can
turn that in to Mr. Jones or me." “Dinner was prepared for Jane and I"? No. “Dinner
was prepared for Jane and me.” Take the other people out; isolate one part of the
sentence at a time, and I promise this will become so incredibly easy. And, you know,
you'll actually be writing and speaking correctly. And by the way, if you're looking for the
grammatical reason for why all this stuff is correct, you should do a little research
on the idea of subject and object pronouns. But I just like to try and simplify it and
say, "Hey, just take the other people out of the sentence, and see what would make sense."
Cool! Well, whether you came here for a refresher or are just now learning this stuff for the
first time, I hope this video helped. Be sure to check out the free practice down in the
description, and—uh—we’ll see you next time.