REPLACING NOUNS WITH PRONOUNS Using personal pronouns Putting pronouns to work I was born in Yorkshire but spent most of my teenage years in Sussex. In the above sentence the 1st ‘person’ is used because the writer is telling his or her own story. An author writes an ‘autobiography’ when writing about his or her own life. Notice that the 2nd person is the same in both the singular and plural. In the past ‘thou’ was used as the singular but today ‘you’ is in general use for both although ‘thou’ may be heard occasionally in some parts of the country. It was sunny yesterday. (The subject of the sentence is it .) His mother scolded him .(The object of the sentence is him .) Personal pronouns take the place of a noun. They are identi- fied as 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons. They can be used as both subject and object. Look at the following table: To avoid the frequent use of the same noun, pronouns can be used instead. DISCOVERING GRAMMAR / 7 singular plural subject object subject object 1st person I me we us 2nd person you you you you 3rd person he, she, him, her, they them it it