English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003
Three Other Rules for Using Pronouns
Chapter 2. Using Pronouns Correctly
Part 1 Welcome to grammarland
Here are three more rules that apply to pronouns and case.
1. A pronoun used in apposition with a noun is in the same case as the noun.
An appositive phrase is a noun or pronoun that adds information and details. Appositives can often be removed from the sentence, so they are set off with commas. The appositive in the following sentence is underlined.
Two police officers, Alice and (she, her), were commended for bravery.
Answer: The pronoun must be in the nominative case (she) because it is in apposition with the noun police officers, which is in the nominative case. Therefore, the sentence should read: Two police officers, Alice and she, were commended for bravery.
Exception: A pronoun used as the subject of an infinitive is in the objective case. For example: “Juan expects Luz and (I, me) to host the reception.” The correct pronoun here is me, since it is the subject of the infinitive to host.
Quick Tip
Pronouns that express ownership never get an apostrophe. Watch for these possessive pronouns: yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.
2. Use -self forms correctly with reflexive and intensive situations.
As you learned in Chapter 1, reflexive pronouns reflect back to the subject or object.
The child embarrassed himself.
Don’t use reflexive pronouns in place of subjects and objects.
The boss and (myself, I) had a meeting.
Answer: Use the pronoun I, not the reflexive form. Therefore, the sentence reads: “The boss and I had a meeting.”
3. Who is the nominative case; whom is the objective case.
No one will argue that who and whom are the most troublesome pronouns in English. Even though who and whom were discussed earlier in this chapter, these little words cause such distress that they deserve their own subsection. Let’s start by looking back at our pronoun-use chart.
Now, some guidelines:
• Use who or whoever when the pronoun is the subject of a verb.
Who won the Nobel Prize this year?
• Use who or whoever when the pronoun is the predicate nominative.
The winner was who?
• Use whom or whomever when the pronoun is the direct object of a verb or the object of a preposition.
Whom did he fire this week?